Just for a brief moment, I'd like to extoll the virtues of Sonic Drive-in's coffee. It's becoming one of my go-to selections for a quick cup of coffee. Slightly alarming, however, is the fact that any time I get a cup it's coming with a sausage croissant sandwich and tater tots. I'm working on my first heart attack, you know.
Anyway, I really enjoy their coffee plain. It's got a nice smooth flavor (no! I'm not talking about cigarettes!) and I'm content to sip it without any milk, creamer, or sugar. It always seems kind of oily to me but that doesn't bother me. Although a pot of coffee brewed with a stick of butter in it may not be a bad idea . . .
The other places around Lincoln that I'll frequent for coffee are:
Scooter's Coffeehouse
The Mill
Starbucks
I'm not a coffee snob by any means. I make no great demands of my coffee or of the places I get it from. I'm sure there's lots of places around here that I can get good coffee from. These are just the venues I go to most of the time.
I would rate coffee from The Mill the highest on the list, even above Sonic. But The Mill is missing one key item: the drive-thru window! Don't get me wrong, I've long been a patron of The Mill and they make good coffee and good coffeeish drink concoctions. But speed is not high on their list of priorities. Also, I often get the feeling when I go in there that I've spoiled their hippie/indie sanctum or interrupted some grand discussion on the benefits of skinny jeans by walking in and asking for a Crowbar.
Scooters coffee is good and they have quite a few drive-thru options here in town. They always have a different flavor of the day but lately I've found myself getting their medium roast. Their coffees are good, but they always tend to have a certain aftertaste to them that I can't quite explain at the moment. I'll have to write down what it reminds me of the next time I go there.
Starbucks. Oh, Starbucks. I love Starbucks but I never go there for their plain ol' coffee. Espresso drinks? Yes. Coffee? No. I've always found it to be extremely bitter and no amount of doctoring has been able to save a cup of their joe for me. But, some people love their coffee. To each their own.
I've heard that a french press is one of the best ways to experience coffee so I would like to try that someday. We've been employing our trusty and drippy Mr. Coffee at home for a few years now and he's done his job admirably. Perhaps it's time to give him a tag-team partner and pick up a french press. Until we win the lottery and can buy a Keurig machine. :-)
Friday, December 16, 2011
Thursday, December 15, 2011
The Fat Will Rule the Earth
Yup. It's that time again. Time for me to blog about running, getting in shape, losing weight, blah blah blah. I've done it before, I'm doing it now, and I'll probably do it in the future.
I am fat. Obese. Working on my first heart attack and trying my damnedest to shut down my pancreas. I seriously need to lose weight or I'm going to be reaping the bitter fruit of my life of excess eating and sparse exercise plan. I've been a yo-yo dieter with Weight Watchers for about four years now. I'll get motivated and work really hard for a week or two and then I lose it. I blow up like Oprah and it sucks.
Anyway, I went for a run tonight, as you can see below. It was cold outside. And my run still looks pitiful.
I am fat. Obese. Working on my first heart attack and trying my damnedest to shut down my pancreas. I seriously need to lose weight or I'm going to be reaping the bitter fruit of my life of excess eating and sparse exercise plan. I've been a yo-yo dieter with Weight Watchers for about four years now. I'll get motivated and work really hard for a week or two and then I lose it. I blow up like Oprah and it sucks.
Anyway, I went for a run tonight, as you can see below. It was cold outside. And my run still looks pitiful.
Reading More With an E-Reader?
Are Tablets and E-Readers Responsible for a Rebirth of Reading?
This is an article from Gizmodo (one of my more frequent tech news haunts) responding to a presentation from The Economist. I haven't viewed the presentation yet (shame on me!) but I just wanted to share a thought about reading. Also, I haven't posted on here in a long time, so it's about time I put something up!
My wife reads a lot. She has for as long as I've known her. We recently got her a Kindle Fire and she loves it. She's been reserving and checking out e-books like crazy from our local library's digital collection (Lincoln City Libraries). Owning a tablet/e-reader hasn't made her read more. I think she's still reading about the same amount that she used to.
I, on the other hand, do not read a lot. I used to, back when I was a kid. But that was before the Internet and before I became more immersed in video games, TV, and watching sports. Sure, back in the day we had a couple Tandy computers (with my favorite game, Red Storm Rising, which was awesome), network television, a Sega Genesis, and a Super Nintendo. But I read voraciously. Through high school I still read a lot, but my intake was tapering. I've been on a steady decline since then. Now, I'm lucky to read one or two books a year. I still haven't finished The Lord of the Rings and I started that my senior year in high school! Well, I've stopped and restarted a couple times since then, but I'm still mired in the dreck of Sam and Frodo plodding towards Mordor. I will finish! One day, I will finish. I think I'm on about the fifth or sixth Harry Potter book. I've been working on that series since 2008. Dracula is another book I've been on for about two-and-a-half years. But there is still hope for me.
Enter, the iPad. I just finished my first exclusively e-read book-The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. I hammered it out in two weeks. I read a little bit on one Friday afternoon, and then I finished the book the following weekend. I'm hooked on reading on my iPad. Perhaps I should give a little background: I've always been a little hesitant to read on an e-reader/tablet. Even though I've turned into a terribly lazy reader, I long held to the belief that I could never get into a book on an e-reader because it wouldn't be the same experience as reading a physical book. True, I'm not holding a book or turning the pages, but this last book converted me. After a little adjusting, I have no problem reading on my tablet. So, I guess you could say that I have been reading a bit more lately because of my e-reader/tablet. I don't think my iPad has caused me to read more. I think it's a combination of the convenience of constantly having the iPad with me and a desire to start reading more. A team effort. It's much easier to carry your library books with you on a slim tablet then it is to lug around physical books. The ease of access and use has certainly contributed to the uptick in my literary consumption.
So there you have it. As a bonus, here's the list of the books I've read this year and the book I'm currently reading:
Freakonomics
The Big Bam: The Life and Times of Babe Ruth
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
The Time Machine
This is an article from Gizmodo (one of my more frequent tech news haunts) responding to a presentation from The Economist. I haven't viewed the presentation yet (shame on me!) but I just wanted to share a thought about reading. Also, I haven't posted on here in a long time, so it's about time I put something up!
My wife reads a lot. She has for as long as I've known her. We recently got her a Kindle Fire and she loves it. She's been reserving and checking out e-books like crazy from our local library's digital collection (Lincoln City Libraries). Owning a tablet/e-reader hasn't made her read more. I think she's still reading about the same amount that she used to.
I, on the other hand, do not read a lot. I used to, back when I was a kid. But that was before the Internet and before I became more immersed in video games, TV, and watching sports. Sure, back in the day we had a couple Tandy computers (with my favorite game, Red Storm Rising, which was awesome), network television, a Sega Genesis, and a Super Nintendo. But I read voraciously. Through high school I still read a lot, but my intake was tapering. I've been on a steady decline since then. Now, I'm lucky to read one or two books a year. I still haven't finished The Lord of the Rings and I started that my senior year in high school! Well, I've stopped and restarted a couple times since then, but I'm still mired in the dreck of Sam and Frodo plodding towards Mordor. I will finish! One day, I will finish. I think I'm on about the fifth or sixth Harry Potter book. I've been working on that series since 2008. Dracula is another book I've been on for about two-and-a-half years. But there is still hope for me.
Enter, the iPad. I just finished my first exclusively e-read book-The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. I hammered it out in two weeks. I read a little bit on one Friday afternoon, and then I finished the book the following weekend. I'm hooked on reading on my iPad. Perhaps I should give a little background: I've always been a little hesitant to read on an e-reader/tablet. Even though I've turned into a terribly lazy reader, I long held to the belief that I could never get into a book on an e-reader because it wouldn't be the same experience as reading a physical book. True, I'm not holding a book or turning the pages, but this last book converted me. After a little adjusting, I have no problem reading on my tablet. So, I guess you could say that I have been reading a bit more lately because of my e-reader/tablet. I don't think my iPad has caused me to read more. I think it's a combination of the convenience of constantly having the iPad with me and a desire to start reading more. A team effort. It's much easier to carry your library books with you on a slim tablet then it is to lug around physical books. The ease of access and use has certainly contributed to the uptick in my literary consumption.
So there you have it. As a bonus, here's the list of the books I've read this year and the book I'm currently reading:
Freakonomics
The Big Bam: The Life and Times of Babe Ruth
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
The Time Machine
Wednesday, July 13, 2011
Nook Color: In No Man's Land
This is my first post from my recently rooted Nook Color. It's been a fun (and fairly easy) process so far. I've ironed out a few things but as with all unofficial technology ventures, things aren't going to work just like they should. Even official, unrooted devices have plenty of problems. I'm having a lot of fun with it so far and I'm hoping to get Honeycomb to run on it soon. Out.
Sunday, July 3, 2011
Super 8 and the Holiday Weekend
Just got back from watching Super 8. I really liked it. It was a collaboration between JJ Abrams and Steven Spielberg so I knew it was going to be something pretty great. In some ways it felt like Close Encounters, which was fine with me. The setting, the music, and a lot of the mystery and terror-tinged suspense.
I appreciated that care was taken to show the story from the perspective of the group of middle-school friends. It's a pleasant dive back into the innocence and adventure of childhood and the interplay between friends, and also the relationships with parents. A good film that I'd recommend to anyone.
We're heading out to my aunt and uncle's place at Johnson Lake tomorrow to celebrate the holiday weekend. Looking forward to a good time with family and some quality water time. As Wanda would say regarding herself and her family, "We're not water folk." I always joke with her whenever she says that, that her family is not like the water folk in The Lord of the Rings. From page 51 of The Fellowship of the Ring: The Shadow of the Past: "[T]here lived by the banks of the Great River on the edge of Wilderland a clever-handed and quiet-footed little people. I guess they were of hobbit-kind; akin to the fathers of the fathers of the Stoors, for they loved the River, and often swam in it, or made little boats of reeds."
Wanda also would say that I often ramble and detour into excessive ramblings when I'm trying to make a simple comparison. Much like the one above. She would be quite right about that. Back to the water:
Myself? I've never been huge on boating activities like skiing (tried it once with a jet ski trying to pull me. Didn't work), tubing, wake-boarding, etc. I don't mind the occasional tube ride, but I mostly spend it white-knuckling the tube handles and trying not to get thrown off.
When I was much younger I did enjoy going fishing on a boat and I enjoy a good boat ride. When we would visit my grandparents I loved to go fishing with my grandpa and my cousin. Grandpa and Grandma had a cabin out at Red Willow Lake (some know it as Hugh Butler Lake) and we'd spend a lot of time out there. Sometimes we'd go out in the boat to fish, but mostly we fished off the docks. Good times.
The Big Ten Network is dedicating what seems like all of their programming this weekend to Nebraska since we officially joined the conference on the 1st. So I sat down and watched the 1995 Orange Bowl between Nebraska and the Miami Hurricanes. It was kind of weird watching it now, because I was only ten when it was played. I didn't know that Warren Sapp and Ray Lewis were on that Hurricanes team. I also didn't know that Cris Collinsworth was one of the announcers. And now I do. Good stuff.
I suppose I should be getting ready for bed since we're shoving off relatively early, for me anyway. Adios.
I appreciated that care was taken to show the story from the perspective of the group of middle-school friends. It's a pleasant dive back into the innocence and adventure of childhood and the interplay between friends, and also the relationships with parents. A good film that I'd recommend to anyone.
We're heading out to my aunt and uncle's place at Johnson Lake tomorrow to celebrate the holiday weekend. Looking forward to a good time with family and some quality water time. As Wanda would say regarding herself and her family, "We're not water folk." I always joke with her whenever she says that, that her family is not like the water folk in The Lord of the Rings. From page 51 of The Fellowship of the Ring: The Shadow of the Past: "[T]here lived by the banks of the Great River on the edge of Wilderland a clever-handed and quiet-footed little people. I guess they were of hobbit-kind; akin to the fathers of the fathers of the Stoors, for they loved the River, and often swam in it, or made little boats of reeds."
Wanda also would say that I often ramble and detour into excessive ramblings when I'm trying to make a simple comparison. Much like the one above. She would be quite right about that. Back to the water:
Myself? I've never been huge on boating activities like skiing (tried it once with a jet ski trying to pull me. Didn't work), tubing, wake-boarding, etc. I don't mind the occasional tube ride, but I mostly spend it white-knuckling the tube handles and trying not to get thrown off.
When I was much younger I did enjoy going fishing on a boat and I enjoy a good boat ride. When we would visit my grandparents I loved to go fishing with my grandpa and my cousin. Grandpa and Grandma had a cabin out at Red Willow Lake (some know it as Hugh Butler Lake) and we'd spend a lot of time out there. Sometimes we'd go out in the boat to fish, but mostly we fished off the docks. Good times.
The Big Ten Network is dedicating what seems like all of their programming this weekend to Nebraska since we officially joined the conference on the 1st. So I sat down and watched the 1995 Orange Bowl between Nebraska and the Miami Hurricanes. It was kind of weird watching it now, because I was only ten when it was played. I didn't know that Warren Sapp and Ray Lewis were on that Hurricanes team. I also didn't know that Cris Collinsworth was one of the announcers. And now I do. Good stuff.
I suppose I should be getting ready for bed since we're shoving off relatively early, for me anyway. Adios.
Saturday, July 2, 2011
Corn
Quick post here, before I get ready to grill my first ears of corn ever. We're having some friends over for lunch today and we're grilling hot dogs and corn on the cob. Never grilled corn before, but I know it's been done before so there's hope. Found a helpful link with some info on it: http://whatscookingamerica.net/Vegetables/GrillingCorn.htm
My first summer job was almost doing detassling. I had applied/signed-up, whatever it is kids do before they get crammed onto a hot school bus and taken out into the middle of nowhere to strip the silk tops off the corn. Instead, my future step-mom told me about a job painting the interior of apartments and some new construction. I went with that instead and never was a detassler. Oh well. Sounded like a pretty tough job. Though the pay may have been better than painting.
My first summer job was almost doing detassling. I had applied/signed-up, whatever it is kids do before they get crammed onto a hot school bus and taken out into the middle of nowhere to strip the silk tops off the corn. Instead, my future step-mom told me about a job painting the interior of apartments and some new construction. I went with that instead and never was a detassler. Oh well. Sounded like a pretty tough job. Though the pay may have been better than painting.
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