Jul 20, 2001, 1:25pm

What a long, strange trip it has all been....

Okay, a bit cryptic. But today I've been thinking about the past (near past) and the way things stand today with regards to me and my web life.

See, back in the day (say 1997, 1998), I was friends with many of the digirati (and some wannabes) out there. Well, as much as email friends could be. But I kind of got fed up with about 95% of them and I'm sure my displayed 'tude in convos with them made them just as fed up with me. Some of them are still cool beyond measure in their own special way (love ya, you pinko commie, Derek!) but I dunno, there was a sense of elitism that just kind of pissed me off.

So for a year or two, I floated in the ether, without many "online friends"... or at least people I could call friends. I severed most of my e-relationships with these folks. With some of them, it was easy... personal issues like infidelity somehow got involved, and it was easy for me to end my relationship with. For others, it was harder - some I wanted to maintain a smidgen of relationship with, but they drifted.

I focused on real things - my real life friends and family, my job, my business, etc etc.

But today, it's like I've come full circle, of sorts. But I'm not back with the digirati... instead, I have some pretty damned fine relationships with *real* people online. There are the folks who know me through the www.coffeekid.com site who have become pretty good friends, and the stuff we talk about is the stuff average people talk about - family, life, weird stuff, trends, etc etc. There's the people who have been reading Yet Another Web Thing (and now Spiffle) for eons who maintain contact with me, and we even hook up in real time once in a while if they visit my city, or I'm in their vicinity. And I do have a good, closed circle of "web buddies", peers in my industry who share an interest in many of the things I'm into - web technologies, flash work, photoshoppin', and yes, I admit, high tech gizmos (sidenote: my recent iPaq aquisition has really pissed off one of them - Gary... heh heh heh).

What makes things so cool these days though is the people who just seem to know how to "make my day" without even knowing me. These are the folks who, day in, day out, email me through the CoffeeKid site saying thanks for the effort, thanks for the cool resource, thanks for the time and passion put into the project.

Let me tell you. That stuff makes my day. Big time. It's beyond stroking ego here. What it does is it lifts me from my everyday concerns - paying the bills, meeting my company's salary every 2 weeks, finding new clients, working on my relationship with Jeanette, etc etc etc. Those emails are like little lifesavers thrown into my otherwise huge imposing sea I tend to float in.

I suppose in a way I haven't gone full circle, I've gone beyond. Though I still miss some of the folks I used to regularly chat with, I've also moved beyond that and found something really much better.

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Mixelania

Photos from Algonquin Park
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Making Snow for the Fortress
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Webiffied

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Fiddlers Green by The Tragically Hip

Around The Bend by Pearl Jam

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

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

CoffeeKid Website
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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`
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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
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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