Logbook: Coffee
Media… Completely fascinated with bored people .. and there wii’s
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…
So it begins – the coffee wars…
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 ..
you are a [name brand coffee goes here] democrat… Ok media blow me…
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?!
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
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..
Gotta love improv everywhere for all the silly weird shit they do,
“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. ”
Supposedly Offensive Coffee…?
Apparently Starbucks coffee has a “new” fat free / sugar free coffee drink. its called “skinny”.. People are calling this “offensive” and “politically incorrect”, wow… just wow… what the hell, we all know starbucks has there made up language with goofy ass coffee names. To me, Offensive coffee is bad coffee.
Anyways from this article at MSN money people are making a shitstorm outta there new coffee type.
it starts out as
| “Shortly after Starbucks (SBUX, news, msgs) launched its new woman-centric “skinny latte” advertising campaign in January, the blogosphere erupted in criticism –- and some praise.” |
personally I cant see how this new coffee or a single word can cause all this. But we live in the fucked up world where christmas lights can be labeled as politically incorrect.
I am not so much a starbucks person, I dont like them, theres just too many intricacies in ordering a regular coffee there. Pseudo language skills should not have a place in ordering a coffee.
I walked into a starbucks once and ordered a coffee – It went like this.
Worker(no I will not call the workers a “barista” (translation: barman barmaid -if Starbucks starts offering beer i will call them that”)):Hi How may I help you today
Me: I would like a large coffee, Milk with extra sugar
W: So you would like a Venti with Milk and sugar ( that half assed helpful tone of voice to correct me as if i had said something wrong)
Me: Large coffee , milk with extra sugar
W: *he goes to correct again*
Me: fuck it im going to dunkin donuts
Anyways enough about the language barrier of starbucks.
I hardly see the offense in calling it a “skinny latte” or whatever. The usage of the word has been around far before starbucks has made use of this term. This who thing about people getting there undies in a knot over this is fucking funny in one way. its the ultra politically correct trying to make something from nothing. if you actually take the time to look skinny has been in use WAAAAAAAAY before they made this that page is from 1999 (Jan 9, 1999 from wayback machine)
I could see it being offending if they called it the “Your a fat hose beast coffee” personally I like that name better.
or the “hey fatty whatcha drinking latte”
I mean really , Are they going to next say extra large shirts are offensive……. now that i think about it , have you ever seen a fat person in a starbucks, I’ve not seen that?
So whats the next step the NBA being offended at starbucks because there “tall” coffee is actually a small?
Man people are so superficial and vain.
As for me I’ll be having my coffee from honey dew donuts.
Dunkin Donuts spreading coffee around the world… scary thought.
Apparently dunkin donuts is going to china, they plan on opening 100 shops in Shanghai. I used to like Dunkin a very long time ago, until they business formula change and they pretty much just hired robot tending zombies and could not get a coffee right to save there lives. Many nights of getting coffees from Dunkin Donuts that just have gone wrong with coffee that you could either run in terror from or made so wrong that carrot top looks normal. they have gone the way of mcdonalds, Serving warmed shit(although mcdonalds gets an exception- you need to goto Sweden to actually get a burger that is edible compared to its US counterpart). Mostly my friends and I goto honey dew donuts, there you get people who know what you want before asking rather than the blank look you’d get going into a DD. So who knows.. MAYBE just maybe good coffee is out of the country but the judge is out on this one.
update 1.58287.18.6.3? post christmas update.
Mmmm Yes… i’ve let Christmas pass without much thought. thanks to capital one keeping me pre-occupied with a severely screwed up checking account. One of the good things to come from christmas is a mini-fridge from my friends jeff and josh.
I used to keep stuff downstairs but it would disappear to the culprits of Not-me and I-dont-know. But now i have my own stash of goodness. Coffee/Soda/more soda/Snacks etc. It needs beer though. i drank the last one out of there awhile ago. I’ve been making use out of the coffee and thankfully stuff doesnt disapear unlike the other fridge.
Wii would like to play..
I posted a really short comment. In October about me ending up getting a Wii, Now, i had been Debating on a console system for months and was fairly decided but money was an issues and finding one was also an issue. Around the holidays which are here now. Finding a Wii is about as likely finding bigfoot.
I managed to get extremely lucky when i had got mine last month at the begining of october. I had been in best buy for another reason and just for the hell of it i asked the blue shirt with the expected answer of "we don’t have one". I figured I’d go up the road to Target and when i was walking down the isle i noticed 3 boxes and i thought they may of been displays. I Had to ask twice, And they were indeed real, Knowing that how hard it is to acquire I ended up borrowing some money to get it. Since then I’ve not seen one for sale since.
As far as fun the system kicks ass, and my major complaint about gaming in the last couple of years is that, the focus on gaming has been on making a pretty picture with basicly no controls. all graphics No fun. I’ve seen the other systems and the expense to me just doesnt make sense when i have a PC. my Main complaints for consoles are
1. most are insanely expensive
PS3 = 400$ (no games inc. accessories you have to pay even more for. Lack of games.
Xbox360 = 300$ to 400$ +35$ for online play (Not to sure how it works out with other stuff, but most games are eventaully ported over to the PC from this system so pointless to buy into)
Wii = $249 the Cheapest and most fun i’ve had with console gaming in a very long time.
2. Games
Ps3 = lack of games, Lack Of interesting games + Used to Have backwards compatibility but removed.
Xbox360 = since most games come to the PC – no real need to have since 90% of the games come over to the PC , and really Halo Does not appeal to me since its just a slowed down version of Unreal tournament (Halo doesnt even come close to the fun of unreal tournament)
Wii = ALot of games whole game cube library + Wii games availible , nintendo normally has different games than the above two systems so its a more unique experence.
*All systems = Fuck Guitar hero with a baseball bat. its retarded, ITs a guitar simulator simulator , wow You simulate someone whos simulating a guitar… Pick up a real instrument you sissy. if you want something more interesting and to actaully learn music rather than playing dance dance revolution for your fingers try "Jam Sessions" for the nintendo DS.
3. Controls
Ps3 = Tried and true controller setup, only exception was when nintendo announced the wii controls and they delayed there controller to attempt a motion control setup themselves. SUXAXIS was put on after the fact removing the Dual shock- which was quoted from sony that both could not be on the controller or some silly shit.
Xbox = appears like the older gravis control pads. I’ve not personally tried to out the xbox controls but im sure its works.
Wii = Completely Unique system of control, brings very interesting gameplay and adaptions to gameplay.. gesture based system does make some really fun games. I could go on and on how actaully interacting with the game rather than Inputing actions into the game and reacting makes a huge difference.
4. Graphics
PS3 – some really nice visuals at times but really most of the time games are not much better than the 360
Xbox360 – same as above but reverse the comment. both systems are pretty much equals to each other.
Wii – I’ve not seen many games I could compare to the other systems but It gets down to my Final comment. Graphically it has lesser than the above two systems but in the same comment the games are more involving . Less eye candy more dimension.
5. Fun
Im not going to compare each system down. Reasoning is it would just be a flogging of epic proportions, theres only so far that PS3/xboxs dated controls can go , and there basically running on running on a control set thats 20 years old. To me graphics do not mean Everything. Sure you can make it look "pretty" but 90% of the time you know when something looks "good" as far as a game you know it controls like ass. there are notable exceptions to that.
Gamewise you get more involved , You dont get bored off your ass watching someone else play. Even thinking sporting games golf is like golf on the wii , bowling is like bowling. First person shooters even have a strangely appealing system of use on the wii. by Far the system thats the most interactive and Fun in the same sentence I’d say is the Wii .
I’ve picked up only a few games so far but I forsee myself picking up other games as well as they come out. I’ve Really liked how the system works as you can see above and the future will see more responce out of me.