Apr 28, 1998, 8:05pm

So it's like, all new!

Last week I got a short email from someone sharing my name (gee, I shoulda asked him what is middle name was), which was kind of cool, because believe it or not, my family name is actually pretty rare. My Dad told me eons ago that all pretty much all the Princes in Canada and many in the States come from one descendant who emigrated to Canada back in the early 1800s. Apparently he was quite the prolific guy too, spawning over 15 children. That's not a family, that's a litter!

Last week I got to tell my stolen cow story to my friend Steve. It was a story I never told him before. I remembered it when, waiting for him to close down the restaurant he owns, I saw this nice porcelain elephant by the front door. It stood about 3 feet high, and was painted in bright colours, and it reminded me of our stolen cow.

The stolen cow became an episode in Carleton University history. It made the press three times (I still have two of those clippings), it almost got us killed, and it made us quite a reputation around the University. Intrigued? Well guess what! I've finally updated and released the whole story, complete with new and shocking uncovered details for your reading pleasure! Check it out, hopefully you'll find it a good read.

In fact, thought it's now Tuesday, I started writing this rant last week, but put off upping it to my site (as you see it now) until I finished my cow story. I wanted to get the right mix of graphics and story flow for it, since it's pretty long (about 3000 words in total). One thing I'm not sure on these days is if you even want to check these things out. I used to get a ton of feedback on my stories, but haven't gotten any for ages, with the exception of the quick fix feedback I do very occasionally with my more important "tales" such as the vimy story etc. Let me know if you want me to even bother with continuing to put new tales up every month or so.

On other fronts, Vancouver is ruining it's reputation as the land of the Wet Coast lately. With the exception of last Thursday, we've had almost three weeks of glorious, sun-filled weather. Summer's definitely on the way, with all of our trees blooming (Vancouver has more than it's share of blooming-type trees, much to my pollen allergy's chagrin). I love summer (and winter) here - it's so much better than where I grew up. Mild winters, with maybe a 50/50 chance of seeing any snow at all, and comfortable, mid 20 Celsius temputeratures in the summer, complete with low humidity is the life for me.

You know one thing that completely freaked me out when I first got to Vancouver? No bugscreens. I grew up with bugscreens on windows, grew up with mosquito, black fly, and other assorted flies as a normal infestation every summer. Bug Zappers were a god-send to my kin and neighbours. After I arrived in Vancouver and moved into my first rented place (after living the hostel life for a while) one of the first things I noticed was the lack of bugscreens on windows - they simply opened into the great outdoors, with no hinderance for pests at all. I asked the landlord, hey man, where's the screens, and he gave me a strange look... no need for them, he said. You'd have to out to Surrey, Langly, or the Fraser Valley before you'd find a real need for 'em, he said.

And sure enough, he was right. I can't tell you how glorious it is to live in a city where I don't have to put up with mosquito bites, black flies, and the like. I love it, and it's probably my favourite thing about Vancouver, with the mild winters and summers a close second.

In even other news, Jean and I found a new coffee house recently. I can't remember if I mentioned it before, but I'll mention it now anyway. As you may or may not know (and if you didn't know, go read my coffee section) I worship at the alter of the bean, and I'm always in search of new coffee haunts. Recently, I found one on upper Tenth, on the way to UBC, called Bean Around the World. I guess I would say it sort of vaguely resembles the coffeeshop on Friends, but I don't really want to say that, since I find it much more "authentic" and cool.

My one complaint about the Friends coffeehouse (on TV, in case you don't know what I'm talking about) is that the setting seems to "try too hard" to be hip. It seems so obviously trendy. I've known a few coffeehouses in my day, and the Friends setting seems to try to incorporate all the coolest things a coffee house can be. Bean Around the World does have a few couches, but they look like cottage reject couches. The prices are probably the cheapest anywhere in Kits, with a huge bowl of Mocha going for $2.75 (Canadian dollars, so that means about $1.90 US) and excellent coffee, made from beans roasted on the premises, for $1.40, with refils for only 60 cents. Definitely my kind of place.

Jean likes the place because she can kick back on one of the couches (one of them is designed for sitting back only on - sitting forward is very difficult) right next to a fireplace that's lit on cold nights. I like the place because the atmosphere is cool, calm, and definitely unpretentious and folksy. In fact, I'm sitting here right now, enjoying an ethiopian ghimbi medium blend coffee. If you're ever in Vancouver, you should definitely check the place out - as I said, they roast their own beans and they sell them too, at a very reasonable average price of about $12 per pound. Or, if you just like the coffee-house atmosphere, it's definitely a place to hang out for an afternoon, or after a busy day of siteseeing. It's on the 4400 block of West 10th Avenue, on the way to UBC.

Anyway, it's a pretty lame rant today, I know, but hopefully the stolen cow story will make up for it.

Oh, before I forget, it was my brother Mike's birthday last Thursday. Happy birthday Bro! He's uh, lessee, he's 7 years younger than me, so that makes him uh, 19? 21? 14? Uh, maybe 24? 22? One of those ages, anyway. And I had an extremely busy week this week, picking up a lot of new clientele. But it looks like I'm going to have to get off my ass and start finishing up a "presentable version" of the WebMotif site, since most of these new clients this week are for IntERnet sites, as opposed to the slew of IntRAnet sites I've been doing of late.

So that's it for today. If you haven't checked it out yet, pop by the Stolen Cow story. I think it's pretty funny, and heck, I was there!

0 comments | reply

Mixelania

Photos from Algonquin Park
Photos from my trip to Algonquin Park this fall with my Mom and two brothers.

War Stories

Making Snow for the Fortress
One of the worst jobs I ever had... till I got out.

Webiffied

Tools I Use
The tools I use to build websites and lead a tech life.

iPod and iTunes Offline

iMark's iTunes and iPod isn't iPlaying anything right iNow.

Most Recent Songs

Fiddlers Green by The Tragically Hip

Around The Bend by Pearl Jam

Here With Me (Rollo's Chillin' With the Family Mix) by Dido

With arms open wide by Creed

truffle pigs by Matthew Good Band

In the News

Burundi and Beyond - NY Times
Great article by Peter Meehan - provided some background.

St. Petersburg Times
Side mention in an article about good machines

AP Story on Espresso
Background and information provided

NY Times - Grinders Article
Especially proud of this one - got the reporter to focus on grinders

Globe and Mail
LOL - showing bad reporting, dude says I'm an American-based site!

The Olympian, WA
Talks about my love for the El Sal Siberia Pacamara

Seattle Times - Clover
Interviewed for comments on the Clover brewer

NY Times - How it Works
Background and information for various espresso machines

Time Mag Article
Just a brief mention, article about roasting beans.

NY Times
Front page article about consumers getting into specialty coffee.

Washington Monthly
Quoted reference to what I wrote in an article at CoffeeGeek.

USA Today - Barista Jam
Intereviewed for my thoughts on what the epitome of espresso is.

WSJ Article
The Wall Street Journal has interviewed me 3 times. This is the first time my name got in a story.

Reuters Interview
Interview with Reuters, Jan 2 - this is the USA Today version.

My Other Stuff

CoffeeGeek
Launched Dec 22, 2001, this is THE online community for espresso and coffee fanatics.

CoffeeKid Website
It's all new, as of March, 2002. My personal coffee obsession site.

WebMotif Services
My company's site - needs an update!

Amazon WishList
Hey, if you feel the need to buy me something, check here!

Daily Visits

enGadget
Great gadget site run by the guy who used to do Gizmodo.

Google News
This is how I get my daily news fix.

DPReview Forums`
The most active forums for digital photography online today.

Daily Zen
Need my Daily Zen fix!

Jalopnik
A blog about car stuff. Vroom Vroom.

MoCo Loco
An industrial design blog. Very cool stuff.

Friends and Family Plan

Beata Blog
Beata's got her own blog! She updates it most days.

Riddla on Flickr
Matt Riddle's flickr account, updated regularly

Irdy Photos
Irdy, my friend from Jakharta, on Flickr

Recent Acquisitions

Canon EF 24-105 f4 L Lens
The best lens I've ever owned. Super sharp and quick.

Canon 5D
A full frame dSLR, with luscious colour reproduction.

Alzo Digital Lights
Some amazing florescent cold lights for product photography

Canon Xsi dSLR
Amazing technology and image quality in a tiny package.

Canon 40D
Latest prosumer camera from Canon - a much better upgrade than the 30D

Fujitsu P1610
Great 2.2lb computer that does most of my travel / writing needs

28mm f1.8 Lens
A great lens for closeup work and full picture photography

Foodsaver Advanced
Finally got the right tools for freezing green coffee.

Canon 50mm 1.4
Most amazing lens I've ever owned. Produces stellar photos.

Canon 10-22mm
Super wide angle (full frame fisheye) zoom for my Canon 20D