Aug 26, 1998, 11:40pm

A new day finally sees a new rant.

Okay. So my last few rants really really sucked. I'm hoping to change that, maybe by discussing it a little, but also by really doing something about it.

First, some updates. We are on time so far for a September 1 issue of Spiffle. That will make it issue number 2. Wooga. I have five really cool stories to choose from, but since there format for the zine is set at 3 stories per issue, I'll have to do some tough choosing.

One note about Spiffle - I started up the Spiffle Lonely Writers Club at Yahoo. Yah, everyone and their dog is jumping on this bandwagon of clubs, but heck, it is kind of nifty. I think it's up to 10 members now, the most in my category! Woooga! Check it out, but keep in mind this service is only a few weeks old, so it's buggy as hell. It seems that if you try to join the club independently, it takes you through the stages but at the very last stage, it tells you my club don't exist. That's a bug. If you want to join, email me and I'll set up an invite. It seems when I invite people, they have no problems in the process of joining.

In other news, I just about have the archive section for this site ready to go. As some of you know, I've been at this ranting and raving business since 1995, and I have archives stretching back to some time around early 1997. I lost all my older stuff during great hard drive crash of '97, something I seem to be quite prone to - which is one my main reasons for being so zealous about backups these days.

And now, for the meat, the substance, the je ne sais quois, the raison d'etre ... aww fuckit... now on to the main part of this here rant.

Lately my rants have gone downhill... this has been going on for months though - it's not a recent phenomenon. I've been looking back on my archive, and while stinkers abound, there are a few standouts, when I was talking about things I was passionate about, things I cared about. I don't see much of that in my latest stuff, at least from the last several months.

I can trace it back to fall of last year - I was on a bit of high back then, personal page-wize at least. My hits were staggering, I had about 30 emails a day directly related to the shit I write here, and I was stepping into various regions of controversy, something I thrived on.

But then I got burned out. I got tired of the name games, the backstabbing, the school yard cliquishness that is really so much a part of this web world. I was a part of it, no doubt, and I was part and parcel of what I started to loathe.

So I stopped posting here for a while. That was around Christmas.

Eventually I was posting new stuff here, but the edge of most of what I wrote was gone. I stopped talking so much about my personal issues when it came to the web, and I stopped playing the games I really got tired of. I still believe in that mantra to this day... in reality, I simply don't have time for the stuff.

I should quantify that... many times I'm sorely tempted to "get into it" again, but I really don't have the time to put the effort into waging any kind of webwarz, any kind of he said she said thing. In recent memory, I will freely admit I was very pissed off to see some people bitch about certain copyright infringements, when many in that community pooh-poohed my own bitching about that a year ago... and how some of them openly welcomed.... wait a sec. I'm delving into the evil depths again.

Note: I really contemplated on leaving this last part in - I know that a few people will read what they want into it and tell others - oh lookit what the prick is saying now... but then I realized I don't really care anymore... heh

So where am I going here? Maybe I should set a few things straight. I didn't start this site to be a badge for myself, a way to make nifty keen net friends. This site and its previous incarnations was always an expression of my artistic abilities (no matter how miniscule). These include writing, graphical design, and basically standing on my pedestal. In time, a new focus came to be part of this site - entertaining you.

Entertaining you doesn't mean I make you laugh. It doesn't mean I make you pissed off either. It means that whatever you think of me or what I write, at least I got you to read the bs I spew, and made it entertaining enough for you to come back once in a while.

Looking back over my stuff from the last several months, I see I've been letting that slip. Maybe its because I was starting to see this as a chore, or maybe its because I was writing rants that were so long, The process of writing them, editing them, html'ing them and then uploading them became too time consuming.

I know a lot of you think I'm some kind of goof. I know a few of you like me and what I type. I also know that some of the people who think I'm the biggest jerk in the world are my most ardent visitors... my site logs show the visit counts. Go figure. Actually, let's go figure. What I said above was no matter how you feel about me, if you get any kind of reaction whatsoever to what I type, then I've entertained you. I've made you want to come back for more. And if I've done this, I've done at least one of the jobs I've set for myself here at this site.

So now where are we? I'm getting to that, I promise - but I want to set down a few more ground rules here first. Looking over this massive site (over 350 pages and even more graphics at last count), I forgot (and now realize) just how much of it isn't complete. That sucks. My archive isn't up still, and it's probably one of the most common comments I get - "when's your archive coming back?" A lot of my old stories are actually sitting up on the server right now, but I don't have them linked yet. Other sections, old favorites and promised new ones aren't set up or even created.

That's going to change very, very soon.

I'm very busy these days with work and other projects, but I'm setting a goal for myself over the next few weeks - complete this damned site. Get the entire thing functional and working, and get it online. I foresee dozens of hours to do this, but I'm gonna commit myself.

But let me ask you a question - do you even care?

And now where I am going with all of this, at least where the rant is concerned. This page you're reading happens to be the most popular page on my entire site - it gets way more hits than my front page and main page combined. I also know that people liked it best when I featured at least two (and as many as four or five) rants a week. I'm going back to that - at least 2 a week. And I make a promise I'll be talking about things I'm more passionate about. I won't be delving back into the world wide backstabbing arena, but I will try to talk about issues and things that count, that matter to at least some of us. I can't promise that they will all be winners, but I will make a sincere effort to post stuff that isn't just filler, isn't just posted for the sake of posting.

But there is a caveat. I cannot continue to write the 2000 word rants I've been doing - I simply don't have that much to say! Imagine me doing 4 rants a week - that's 8000 words! Yikes!

So let me ask you another question - is this something you want?

Okay, enough of that. I'm sitting at Benny's right now. It's 4:15 am Thursday morning. Mitzy is sitting beside me, looking for food. There's a really cute girl with her boyfriend sitting at the other end of the patio, and this incredibly huge guy sitting by himself. We apparently are all insomniacs. I just finished a marathon design creativity session for a client (getting those storyboards and initial designs done is the bitch part of my work), and I'm in serious downtime mode. Starting next week, things are gonna change around here...

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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