Lack of Discretion

I look at Facebook pretty much every day...often several times a day.  I like to see what my friends are up to, see pictures, quotes, humor, art, and read about the events that surround their lives.

Unfortunately, there are those who feel like Facebook is their own personal editorial column regarding issues relating to politics, religion, and other matters I feel deserve a greater degree of discretion.

Yesterday, I came across the following quote - and although laced with humor, there is a layer of truth I can't ignore.

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Religion is like a penis. It’s fine to have one, and it’s fine to be proud of it.  But please don’t whip it out in public and start waving it around....and please don’t try to shove it down my throat.

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Incidentally, I generally feel the same way about vegetarianism, politics, and other personal beliefs. Just because you have access to a public forum doesn't mean you should haphazardly use it as a vehicle to gain acceptance for your personal beliefs. Consider that it might be more empowering to keep your personal beliefs personal, rather than to blindly seek acceptance.

The Quad Cruiser

I seem to blog so much about coffee that I have neglected another of my life's loves; bicycles.  I developed my love of bicycles in my early teens. I turned 13 in 1980, and BMX had really started gaining popularity.  My friends and I all rode BMX bikes, and every dime I made on my Washington Post paper route went into bike parts. When I was 17, I scored a job at the local bike store as a mechanic...and my love intensified.  Soon after came a road bike, then a mountain bike, and...well - you get the idea. 

In the early 2000's, I began restoring old bikes as a hobby. First a road bike, then a BMX bike...but the BMX bikes became a hobby.  In fact, vintage BMX has become an industry in itself. One of the bicycle companies that latched onto the vintage BMX popularity was SE Bikes - who was one of the very first successful BMX companies. SE began releasing bikes with old school flavor made with current technology...most called them "retro new school".

This brings me to my BMX cruiser - a 2011 24" SE Quadangle.  The original SE Quadangle (made in the late 70's) was made for a 20" wheel.  Although the 20" wheel is still the most common for BMX bikes today, us old guys seem to like bikes with larger wheels for comfort...and I surmise SE knew what the target market was when they decided to make a 24" retro Quadangle.  The first complete 24" Quad came out in 2009, and it was white with chrome accents. In 2010, they did a red framed version with chrome and blue accents.  In 2011 - they went black with gold accents with a touch of chrome...and I could no longer resist.  I waited a while after the release and scored a great online deal.

My only complaint about this beauty is this; out of the box - I found it to be a bit "overbranded".  I just felt there were too many parts branded by SE: the bubble logo grips, bubble logo chainwheel, etc.  I have a pretty solid memory of my multiple bikes and friend's bikes when we were kids, and they were customized - not bikes with every part branded by one company.  So - I started customizing this bike. So far I've changed out the bars, pedals, grips, seat, seat post, and seatpost clamp, as well as adding front brakes. 

I don't get to ride it much - my vintage road bike gets most of the exercise duties.  For the most part, I bring it out on nice, sunny days...putter around on it, and smile a lot.  This coming Sunday - April 21st - a whole bunch of people who love old school BMX bikes like me are going to gather for a cruise through DC.  If we have a turn out like last year's gathering, it'll be around 30 or 40 of us...and we'll putter around, and smile a lot.

Thank you, Keurig!

Those of you who know me might be saying, "Wow Jay.  Blogging about coffee again?  How....different."

Yeah, yeah - I know.  My life is pretty boring, and subsequently the things on my mind come from a limited number of topics.  That said, some of you now might be saying, "Ummm....dude?  That's a nice picture - but it's not a Keurig."  And you would be correct....but read on.

The Keurig coffee maker is a single cup coffee brew system, and if you've never heard of it - surely you're living under a rock or despise coffee.  You might think with a name like Keurig that it's from some exotic European country, but the 1990 start-up happened in Massachusetts.  Green Mountain Coffee Roasters bought the company in 2006...and that's when the popularity really started to take off.  They are now immensely popular, and the ready to brew "K-cups" that contain the coffee are available in just about every grocery and big box store you can think of.

Admittedly - a Keurig machine makes a decent cup of coffee...and it's damned convenient. Most machines have a reservoir tank that keeps water ready to use, so you just pop a K-cup in the machine, prop your cup under the spout and press the brew button.  Ta-da!  A minute or two later, you've got a delicious, fresh brewed cup of coffee.

The main reason I've never jumped on this bandwagon is because I love to buy coffee that's roasted locally, and roasted recently...preferably within the last few weeks.  Furthermore, I like to grind right before I brew, as the flavor profiles in coffee can change within an hour after after grinding. K-cups are mass-manufactured, and there's no way to know fresh it is.  There are cups you can load yourself...but that kinda shoots the convenience factor in the foot.

So I still use old-school, conventional methods to make coffee. I have a french press, a pour-over, an espresso machine, and most mornings I use a good 'ol drip coffee machine.  10 or 12 years ago I bought my first drip coffee machine with a thermal carafe.  I find these to be vastly superior to the old glass carafe versions because the coffee doesn't sit on a burner, and therefore doesn't cook down into a coffee reduction with flavors resembling asphalt.

A few days ago, my 8 year-old Mr. Coffee drip coffee maker kicked the bucket.  I've historically been lax about running a vinegar solution through the machine regularly to prevent mineral buildups, and it finally caught up with me on this one.  However, it was only 50 bucks, and 8 years ain't bad for a $50 kitchen appliance that gets used almost every day.

Being a little short on cash, I decided against buying a high end machine right now - and instead decided to go for the band-aid approach at the local Goodwill thrift store.  What I found is what you see in the picture; a stainless thermal Mr. Coffee complete with removable water tank and water filtration system.  I examined it pretty closely in the store, looking for the mineral build-ups that took the life of my last one.  Not only were there no mineral build-ups, but I couldn't even see any coffee residue...nothing! Everything including the water filter looked to be unused.  Brand new...just no box.  They had it marked $30....pricey for a thrift store, but I guessed there was no way I'd get one with a box for that price - so I nabbed it.  I brought it home, cleaned it well, and fired it up...and it works beautifully.

Why am I telling this story and what's the connection to the Keurig machines?  Well - I have Keurig to thank for this find, and I'll tell you why.

Because Keurig machines have become so incredibly popular, once people are hooked on them - they look at their old coffee equipment and say, "Now what the hell am I going to do with that?"  I'm sure a lot of borderline hoarders stash the old machines in the closet or pantry...but lots of them end up getting donated to a thrift store.  I'm a thrift store regular...you never know what you'll find in those places. Sometimes it's stuff I want for myself, and other times it's something I'll stick on eBay and sell for profit.  I started noticing really nice coffee equipment flooding into thrift stores several years ago and dubbed it, "The Keurig Effect".

Thanks to the Keurig effect, I now have a perfectly functioning burr grinder and a stainless thermal drip coffee maker. The retail value of those two machines is around $200, but the thrift store price was $40.

Thank you, Keurig.

Techie Wonders

Technology is one of those things that's easy to take for granted. That said, it's not like I feel it's necessary to thankfully rejoice every time I take my phone out of my pocket - but I really appreciate techie stuff.

For example, this morning I sat in my kitchen having coffee and perusing the internet.  I began to ponder the current state of the Washington, DC music scene, and recalled seeing a band several months ago I really liked called Beasts of No Nation.  Years ago, I'd have had to write it down, stick the little piece of paper in my wallet, and hopefully remember to look for them and/or ask about them the next time I made the trek to Tower Records or Smash...because the mall stores were riddled with nothing more than top 40 pop garbage.  However, this morning in my kitchen...in pajamas and sipping delicious Mayorga Cafe Cubano...I did a quick search on iTunes and found the June 2012 release, "Now More Than Ever".  A few clicks and a few sips of coffee later, that music was on my computer - ready for listening.  Sure, I could reminisce about how I miss the big record jackets with the big artwork and lyrics sheets and so forth...but space is hard to come by, and I'd rather create storage room for another bicycle than for another piece of furniture to store records...or tapes or CD's for that matter. 

So I had the new Beasts of No Nation downloaded - but it was time for me to shower and get ready for work.  I thought to myself; I just need to sync my iPhone before I leave for work so I can listen to that bad boy!  However, I was up late working on a freelance graphic design job, and being a little light on sleep often makes me a little short on memory...and I forgot.  I was a few minutes into my commute when I reached for the iPhone and plugged in the ear buds - and I thought...damn!  I forgot to sync!  Oh well...I'll just have to wait.  So I happily popped in the ear buds, hit shuffle, took a sip of coffee and BAM!  There was Beasts of No Nation! At first, I was quite confused. How the hell did that get on there?  Then I remembered the day not long ago when I was prompted with the question; Do you want iTunes to Sync automatically to iCloud?  Clearly I said yes - because that music was magically on my phone...and it was one of those moments when my inner geek was glowing, and I was brimming with appreciation for that technology. I looked at my phone in amazement and said, "How cool is that?!"

..and by the way, the iPhone IS the greatest gizmo ever.

Wind Energy and Political Sludge

I don't often get in the middle of political sludge.  I used to - but it's just not my thing anymore.  I stay up on current events, but generally speaking I don't get overly immersed in news and politics.  The reporting is all so negative, and I really don't need additional negativity in my life.  I'd rather read something positive, or better yet - do something positive.
 
That said - this wind energy tax credit thing has me a bit tweaked.  The media is widely reporting that presidential candidate Romney is stating the Wind Energy Production Tax Credit should be allowed to expire, and that will cost 37,000 jobs.  The estimated and projected (read: guessed) number of job losses are, of course, meant to paint a picture that Romney is insensitive to the value of American citizen's jobs - when he claims that his campaign is all about jobs.  Well - I value my job, and I certainly don't care for it when I lose mine or hear one of my friends has lost theirs. However - let's consider the federal government is trying to apply good business sense to slow the economy's bleeding, and take a closer look at this...from a business perspective.

That tax credit cost the tax payers $5 billion in 2010.  This essentially means you and I - the taxpayers - paid those 37,000 people on average over $135,000 a year in salary (considerably more than I make).  Oh - and I'm paying them to make energy I then have to pay for?  Now what are those jobs costing me?

Please don't misunderstand - I think wind energy is a great idea. Our environment needs ideas like that.  However, if it's not a way to produce energy that comes with a sound business model - it simply needs a new approach.  Seriously - after 20 years of government subsidizing - they surely should have figured out a way to be self-sustaining and profitable.  No business should continue to exist if they can't figure out how to be self sustaining.  Using the federal government as a permanent crutch is no way to run a business.   

I'm still undecided on for whom I will cast my vote in November.  However, the liberally slanted media casting a negative light on an issue so easily disproved in my mind is not helping the incumbent in my book. But this is a great example of why I've grown weary of stories on government and politics.

It's been a really long time since I felt like a presidential election was anything but choosing the lesser of two evils.

Job Requirements Met

I don't write as often as I might like, and when I do - it's often about coffee.  Anyone who knows me knows my love of coffee. 

This morning a friend sent me a very funny joke about coffee.  The setting for the joke was that of a job interview...and it triggered a memory of I job interview I had many years ago.

The interview was with a small company, and the man interviewing me was the president - his name is Bill.  My friend Greg referred me for the position, and told me Bill was a funny, quirky guy...but I'd not met him prior to the interview. 

I walked into Bill's office, we exchanged pleasantries, and I handed him a copy of my resume.  He asked that I sit down and he looked over my credentials for a minute or so.  He then said, "So - you were referred by Greg?  You worked with him?"  I told him yes, and gave a little background on the work Greg and I did together.

Bill said, "Good.  Can you cuss and drink coffee?” to which I smiled and told him, "Yes, sir."

Bill then said, "Good.  You're hired."

End of interview.

Roast On Date

Remember when Budweiser had that ad campaign about the "born on date"?  Well...I kinda thought that was crap - but coffee is definitely best when it's consumed within a few weeks of when it's roasted (and brewed immediately after grinding).  After a month or so the intensity of flavors begins to fade, thus diminishing the overall experience.

The problem with most grocery store coffee (and SBX for that matter) is that you have no idea whatsoever as to when the coffee you're buying was roasted.  Rest assured - in most cases the stuff you buy in the grocery store was roasted months ago...maybe many months ago. The exception I've found is Whole Foods stores.  They seem to work relationships with local roasters who ship directly to the stores - thus eliminating the months of layover in distribution warehouses.  In addition, many of them stamp a roasting date on the bag.  Also, many Whole Foods stores roast their own in-house, and they keep it in bins with the roasting date marked on the top...very cool.

The bags of deliciousness in the picture are from one of my favorite roasters; Rival Bros in the Philadelphia area.  I buy from them online, and they ship UPS.  You can see by the date of this post and the date on the bag - my coffee was roasted 4 days ago.  That'll work!  That's a bag of their Palooka decaf and a dark high test called Whistle & Cuss.  I've had both before, and both are exceptional.

You can visit the Rival Bros website here: http://www.rivalbros.com/