Nov 27, 2002, 9:35pm

So here's the deal.

I update this rant page, then I go away for a few days. I come back, and no comments are posted. Hey, that's cool. But I put off updating for a few more days. Then I start getting emails or ICQ messages from people going "hey fucknuts, where's your latest rant on Spiffle?" (Hi Ernie, Dave, Karen, Bill, Scootie (??) and others! :)). So you DO read about my pitiful life, dontcha. Some dude from ZD Net's massive pipeline checks in like EVERY DAY. It's either Chris or Dvorak - my odds are on the former.

Well, November's come and gone, and trust me, I got lots to rant about. LOTS.

Latte Art Competition in Seattle

I have to say, what a sham. I attended CoffeeFest in Seattle a few weeks ago, and they had the first Latte Art Competition (sponsored by Durex... uh, Sponsored by Faema Espresso Machines). The guy who won deserved to win (Shout out to Blind Mellon Zack), but the second place finisher? Marginal. The third place finisher? Yikes. Okay, she was an Asian in a cowgirl outfit, and poured two of the latte art samples at the same time, with both hands. But the ART in the cup sucked, to be frank. The judges didn't really know what they were doing, they didn't sample the drinks, and from some of the comments they made, they didn't even seem to grasp what latte art is all about ("hey, you seemed to have drawn a face in your latte art! Did you plan that?")

See the sample to the right? That's latte art. That's my latte art. That's what I call my average latte art. But it would have beat the second and third place finishers, no problems at all. However, it wouldn't have beat the fifth place finisher, or the sixth or the eighth. I hope to gosh next year's competition becomes a real one.

Richmond Drivers

GAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!

Enough said. I can start to understand why folks in LA travel with guns in the car.

Christmas Approaching

Christmas. I have a love hate relationship with Christmas. I love giving stuff away. I get crabby on the holiday, and I don't know why.

This year, we're going to Ottawa for Christmas, to spend it with my Mom and family. Mmmmm holiday flying. Gotta love it. Not. Well, at least I didn't pay for the tickets - Jeanette did, as a Christmas Gift to me. Wow.

We'll also be spending New Year's in Ottawa as well, though I just found out the people I hoped to ring in the New Year with are going to be out of town - bummer. Maybe I can find some of my other old Ottawa buddies for New Years Eve. Gotta start working on that.

The reason we're going to Ottawa always weighs heavily on my mid.

Holiday Gift List and Contest

In case you didn't know, over at the site that features moi as a Senor Editor (say that with a Spanish accent with pride), we're giving away over $2,000 in prizes (and that's in real money, US dollars, not peso money, aka Canadian Chretien Bux) as part of a huge contest.

Go see the holiday gift list here.

Go see the contest details here.

The catch? You gotta be a site member to get in on all the huge prizes, and you have to vote or comment on a product in the Holiday Gift List. The cool thing is, the more times you vote on products, the more comments you make, the more entries you get!

Other Rantings

The whole state of the Internet has me bloody depressed as of late. While fans of this site may think I don't update it often, the fact is, I'm putting on average maybe 15,000 words a week "online". I just don't always do it at Spiffle.

But a lot of websites I used to visit don't update any longer, or have lost their focus. The artistry on the web, the passion seems to be going. It's all commercial now.

CoffeeGeek maintains itself by having minimal advertising. There's no way around that. But by and large all of the content on the site is by people passionate about quality coffee. There's over 2,000,000 million words (give or take a hundred thou) on website, and 1,900,000 of them are non commercial in nature. Much of it is quality reviews on products by site members. Some of it is words by me and other columnists on the site. A lot of it is intelligent, passionate debate and discussion in the forums.

Yes, there's other sites out there like this, but it seems to me more and more of them are dropping adspace into places where you a) wouldn't expect it, or b) never saw it before. Some "passion" sites on high tech products are now dropping affiliate link articles into every second or third slot. Some are doing stealth linking in return for payments. Others have dropped any pretense of being independent and are just plain shills for a major sponsor now.

That won't be happening with CoffeeGeek, as long as I run the site. We have ONE area where sponsors pay for content - New and Noteworthy. There's a clear disclaimer at the bottom that says it is a paid spot, but when we do a facelift on the site, it will be made even clearer. Everything else? PASSION drives the content - not bucks.

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Mixelania

Photos from Algonquin Park
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War Stories

Making Snow for the Fortress
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Webiffied

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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