An interesting article, the author states that

"trust has faded in modern society because of the collapse in marriage and the family, the breakdown of working-class communities, and more fluid job structures"

I couldn't agree more, the sheer selfishness of people never ceases to amaze me, driving and shopping in Tesco on a Saturday afternoon are too good examples, but society as a whole is so wrapped up in itself that it is actually blind to its own condition.

Displacing the blame for the human condition - Telegraph.

Coffee on the cheap,
originally uploaded by colonelgrib.

I know the title of this post sounds like a new Starbucks' special, but it's really about saving money (not buying in Starbucks would be a good start) :-) At the moment there seems to be a lot less money to go around. Does that mean a lot less money to spend on "unnecesary luxuries" like a good cup of coffee?

Not so, making good coffee doesn't have to cost the earth, use a lot of electricity on fancy equipment or even create a mess. When we take coffee brewing back to its most simple form, you not only save money but you might actually find it tastes better too!

The photo attached shows you everything you need for a simple cup of "pour over" coffee; standard kitchen funnel, filter paper (or a mesh filter from a home coffee machine), coffee in an air tight container and a mug, all you need to add is hot water.

For one cup of coffee all you need is a desert spoon's worth of coarsely ground coffee (remember to only grind what you need, or use fresh pre-ground), put the paper filter in the funnel, add coffee and pour in your hot water, stir the grounds and add hot water until there is enough in your cup an thats it!

And it doesn't end there, anything left in the filter can be poured down the sink, helping keep your drain clear (yes coffee grounds are actually good for your pipes!) and the filter paper can be added to you compost pile if you have one. So there you go, you get a nice cup of coffee, save money, time and effort and help the environment too, what better way to start the day?

Andrew

Reality is having it tough lately, be it Dalek invasions or backwards temporal ripples from the CERN LHC test next month, but the worst disturbance of all, is the disturbing of my reality caused by another coffee shop closure in Belfast.

According to this blog post Espresso Soul in Belfast, has ceased to trade. I'm not sure of the details but I can say that Espresso Soul offered some of the best coffee in Belfast and the only reason there is no review here is that their coffee was so good I only drank espresso, poured from their beautiful lever machine, they will be missed.

Regardless of Espresso Soul's situation, it is very increasingly hard to operate any sort of business based on quality and passion rather than quantity and making a fast buck.

Andrew

I use Google Alerts like some Batman-esque early warning system, any and every time a news article or blog post mentions the words "Coffee" AND/OR "Espresso" AND "Belfast" AND/OR "Northern Ireland" I get an email sent my way. It not a perfect system, but it does allow me to find random or obscure articles that I would not have found ordinarily. A side effect is that I tend to trigger my own alerts, the sentence above will make sure of that, I also get a lot from Phil :-)

This morning's Alert brought me an interesting article, from Trifter with this hilarious quote:

"I suppose we are taking our place among the sophisticated places of the world much in the same way that a ten year old girl tries out her mother's make-up. Refinement comes with age and experience, and at this stage we still have lipstick smeared from ear to ear."

Cappuccino City

Over the coming weeks I hope to serialise a talk I recently gave at BarCamp Belfast. In this way and without the time constraint I hope to develop each point fully.


The terms startup, venture capital, blog and podcast are familiar to all that are involved in the IT world and the online community that they have created. However to say that these things only apply to IT companies is akin to looking through a telescope. In a world not too far removed from that of IT, young men and women who dare to be different are bringing innovation, energy and ethics to a centuries old industry, the Speciality Coffee Industry.

Over the next few weeks, I'll be lifting the lid on the speciality coffee industry, showing you that its not just caffeine that drives us and how the IT and coffee worlds overlapping has brought innovation.

I came across a renewable energy company in Chesire called,Sky Flair. After reading their about page I'm not sure how I'd feel about them installing equipment for me. Perhaps I am being a snob, could it be that this an open and honest approach to communicating with customers or a amateurish and unprofessional way to present you company?

It's a sleepy Sunday afternoon for me, after BarCamp Belfast yesterday and the media team in Church this morning. Time I think to relax, catch up on some reading and enjoy my new sample roasts.

I've been really enjoying coffee from South America lately, especially from Guatemala and El Salvador. Guatemala Finca San Francisco Tecuamburro is a personal favourite and I've been trying several styles of roast to bring out the natural sweetness in these beans and after the cup (or three) I've just had, I think I'm nearly there

I remember, at least I think I remember, (it could have been on televison), a time when staff in a shop were there to help and assist you, even if they were only after a sale. Fast-forward to the brave new world we live in and you'll find the majority of shop staff are no longer there to help you or their company; take a look around, most shop staff are under enthused, spoilt teenagers, who are only there to fund their weekend binge drinking/smoking/drugs/child support payments and have no interest in what they do because they can easily move another cushy seemingly brainless job with ease.

I'm not knocking all teenagers, nor am I saying the jobs are brainless, but it does seem that there are a lot of them and they really don't care. Whether it was the girl in subway who was disgusted and refused to put mayo on a meatball sub, the staff in Burtons who won't help you find a product, or the cafe worker who refuses to make a cappuccino cooler, because "that's how the machine does it" you all know who you are! If you find yourself reading this, no I am not a grumpy old man, but just think how you'd like to be treated in a shop, that's how you should be treating others. It's an age old ideal, but is as relevant today as ever.

Andrew

I hope to attend BarCamp Belfast this month, held in QUB on 21st June. BarCamp, for anyone that doesn't know, is a sort of un-conference, where people gather together "to share and learn in an open environment." To take the concept one step further I think of it as an "analog" wiki of sorts. Attendees arrange among themselves, before hand and during the event, who will speak and on what topic. Its like a 21st Century Quaker IT meeting.

I think its a great idea for people in similar fields to meet together and share their knowledge, ideas and have a bit of craic. Just look around the Web (2.0) today and you can see so much openness, with open APIs allowing unparalleled integration of apps. Collaboration spurs innovation!

If you still dont' know what I'm talking about, Wikipedia is your friend.

Andrew

This is a quick video, giving some pointers on pulling a better shot of espresso

Andrew

AKA - I can’t cup to save my life (Although that would be an interesting situation to be in, all the same)
The weekend has come and gone and as promised I have the results of my “great experiment” which were slightly different than I expected; I discovered a complete inability to distinguish any flavours when cupping! I’m not panickng yet though, I have a very good sense of smell and taste and I find it very unlikely that this would happen, unless the taste was incredibly over/under powering, which would happen if my grind was incorrect.

Not to be defeated and not wanting to waste any more precious coffee, I moved to my espresso maker and set to work over-caffeinating my family. The result being that I ended up pulling drinks WBC style, in batches of four, both espresso and cappuccino and having three members of the family evaluate, based on body, flavour, sweetness, acidity etc. I drank the remaining drinks, so they wouldn’t go to waste

We sampled Coffee Collective’s Espresso Blend, Ristretto Coffee’s Espresso Blend, Has Bean’s El Salvador Finca La Siberia and my “Proletariat Blend.” In hindsight, I wish I’d ordered Has Bean’s Espresso Blend, to make this a fair test; the La Siberia is in a league of its own as far as I’m concerned, it’s a wonderful example of a single-origin espresso and stood out to all the family as something different, although some noted it may actually have been too sweet and bright for cappuccino.

I won’t get into specifics, although I know that’s what you all want, but I was pleased to find my blend could almost hold its own against the pros, even after roasting the Sumatran component too dark. No surprise that The Coffee Collective came out on top, these guys have created a wonderfully balanced and sweet blend that lends itself to milk drinks. Ristretto are locally based and are making serious inroads into the stagnant Northern Ireland coffee industry, their blend itself is very Northern Irish, quite a heavy body with a touch of sweetness, its much closer to the expected “coffee taste” than something like the La Siberia. My blend, needs work, that’s the main point of this test. I feel the proportions are right and the choice to halve the Monsooned Malabar a few months back has allowed the fruity flavours in the other beans to come through, its also quite well balanced as a straight espresso. In the next few weeks, look out for part 3, where I’ll be running the same test on some high end commercial machines to see the difference in taste.

Andrew

Not just confused, but kinda dirty too. Why? Because I’ve just been in Starbucks and I really enjoyed it!

I popped in to the new Victoria Square store to make use of their wifi for wedding planning purposes, ordered my usual small cappuccino, not too hot. I made a point to ask them not to heat the milk too high as opposed to adding cold milk and to my surprised they had no problem sticking it to the man, so to speak. The result? A not half bad cup of coffee! (My Victoria Square review is still a work in progress so this is not a review.) Not only was the coffee good but they were some of the most friendly and talkative (in a good way) coffee shop staff I have met in a long time.

It’s such a good location too, lovely view, plenty if comfy seats, open wifi from somewhere nearby as well as their own t-mobile wifi and late openings. I have to say I really enjoyed myself and I’ve came to a shocking realisation of just how big a snob I am. Which makes it even more pleasing to find such gems in the rough. I for one will be back. (Until Clement’s start opening their York Street store late, that is)

You know who I'm talking to!

Northern Ireland is a land which in the past has been blessed of God, but living here ourselves we may not fully realise the extent of the blessing. It only takes one look to the British mainland or south to the Irish Republic to see how previously God fearing lands are in the grip of “evangelical” atheism, militant Islam, and worse, complete indifference and apathy. Apathy so bad that many adults have never been to church even as a child. When speaking to people in Northern Ireland is is generally assumed that they have had some sort of church upbringing; Protestant and Catholic alike will have heard Bible stories and know who Jesus was. But without any “Christian” orientation in a life, a person will see the message you bring, of God's salvation as a strange alien concept.

Religion, especially Christianity is a taboo subject; atheists blame as the source of all the World's problems, a view taken up by many throughout the land. And to this background our message seems as bizarre and ridiculous as that brought by many cults like Scientology, whose beliefs we find laughable.A different approach must be taken to not just witness, but to educate as to what we witness about. Yes, we can live our life as a living testimony of what God has done for us, but if someone asked us why we lived in that way, telling them we are saved because Jesus died to save us from their sins, would seem as religious technobabble. It is a challenging problem, to understand this mind set, and find a way best suitable to witnessing to those with it, which will take much prayer and patience.

We must also pray that the plague of apathy does not take root here in Northern Ireland, for the seeds have already been sown, parents no longer send their children out to Church or Sunday School and the association of Biblical Christianity with the Catholic Church due to the Ecumenical movement, has tarnished our reputation.We must witness to the young now while there still remains a generation that are willing to hear, for once the foundation of youth has been removed the church will crumble. God forbif we would let that happen.

And he said unto them, Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature. He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; but he that believeth not shall be damned. Mark 16:15,16

I was very impressed yesterday to find a special iPhone formatted page on sermonaudio.com.

SermonAudio have some great sermons in audio and video format, but until recently has been very much the domain of Windows Media users, with basic only podcast support and wmv video. Gradually over the past year they're support for iTunes and Web2.0 standards has been on the up; now with iPhone and iPod Touch support you can browse sermons on specially formatted pages, listen via Edge and watch video over wifi.

Anything that makes a site more accessible is a good thing in my book, although this feature may only appeal to geeks like me. Either way its a great addition to an already great resource.

Andrew

No Compromise

Dinosaurs and the Bible

Creation or Evolution

“We will have to repent in this generation not merely for the hateful words and actions of the bad people but for the appalling silence of the good people.” – Martin Luther King Jr.

Just a little something I made...

Andrew

One day, two surprises, but their showman ship is never in question. Without hype or fanfare Apple have released 4 new colours in the iPod Shuffle range (starting at the bargain price of £55) and my personal favourite, UK & Ireland specific Mac Ads, starring David Mitchell and Robert Webb, two UK comedians known for Peep Show, who I never found funny until now.

The original "Mac & PC" Ads are usually pretty witty, but these are outright hilarious (in a good British sort of way).
If you don't know what I'm talking about, then click here to watch, you won't be disappointed!

Andrew

Thats how many days are left until Lila and I get married, wow seems really close doesn't it?! As the stack of bridal magazines and cutouts grow I have to wonder why the groom is traditionally sidelined in wedding planning; I certainly know why I am, as we all know what would happen, but I can't believe that all grooms are full of hot air (Sorry!)



Magazine racks are filled with Men's magazines filled with grooming and syle advice, so why are men's roles in weddings (according to the media) relegated to a few pages on speech making and photos of nice shoes to wear?


I don't have an answer to this one, just wondering...

Andrew