Tag: reading

Adagio Teas

I’m normally a coffee drinker. Heck, let’s be honest here; I’m more than just a coffee drinker. I’m both a coffee addict and a coffee snob. I’ll gladly pay ~$5 for a well brewed cup of espresso with a shot of flavored syrup in it and I regularly buy fresh beans from Gevalia rather than try to choke down that crap my office claims is coffee.

But for all that, coffee is not my exclusive poision. Particularly in the warmer months, nothing is quite so refreshing as a cold glass of ice-tea. To make my ice-tea, I generally put 5 bags of Lipton into a 1 gallon glass jar and stick it in the window for a few hours. It’s slow, but it turns out wonderful. Why am I talking so much about this?

Well, I had been reading through the various blogs on my portal page, when I saw an interesting note over at shades*of*grey. He mentioned an interesting marketing technique from Adagio Teas. Far too interesting to resist in my book, so I’m linking them up here –and in my sidebar– hoping to get a freebie. 🙂

Recently, I’ve been experiencing some problems getting iTunes & Windows to read/write from/to my iPod. Sometimes, both Windows & iTunes could see it but even then I could only transfer maybe 1 or 2 files before I’d start having problems. And occassionally, Windows should BSOD on me. I started browsing the Apple forums and found out I wasn’t the only one having this problem. But I’ve got an older iPod and my PC has onboard Firewire ports that I use to connect my iPod to. Finding somebody else reporting the exact same problems I was having was simple, but most times the solution mentioned was to switch from using USB connections to Firewire. After some more hunting around in the forums; I noticed that most people recommended using an Adaptec FireConnect 4300 to hook up your iPod to your computer. And yesterday while shopping for my brother’s birthday present at BestBuy; I noticed they had the card in the store. I thought about it but held off; as I hadn’t really tried out GTKPod under my Linux install yet. It started to work but my computer ended up freezing solid. I couldn’t SSH into it or get it to switch to another session to close out and had to power my computer off/on.1

So when that didn’t work; I decided I’d go back to Best Buy and get the card. I am ever glad that I did. Hooking up the iPod to the FireConnect 4300 works like a charm. Neither Windows or iTunes had any trouble reading/writing from/to the iPod and it feels like the music files get transfered over faster too. So if you’re having read/write problems with your iPod and you’re not using an Adaptec FireConnect 4300; buy one now!

1 I don’t blame GTKPod for this, as I’ve heard the 2.6.8 kernel has issues with Firewire drives and I am currently running a 2.6.8 kernel.

*Grumpf* is my word for when I’m feeling just a slightly bit grouchy. Not enough to make me want to rip people’s heads off, but enough that I’m less than enthusiastic about Life, the Universe and Everything. Of course, feeling *grumpf* today is mostly my own fault. I’ve been staying up far too late: reading, playing on the computer and what not. But it’s also work’s fault; what with the recent changes and all.1 Then for an extra kick in the chops, I finished the book I was reading and went to grab the next one in the series for something to read over my lunch hour.2 Naturally, I can find books 3, 4 & 5 but not book 2. *grumpf*

Still, today’s not been all bad. While searching for book 2; I did run across some Discworld books that I’d forgotten I had and those will give me something to read for the next couple of days. Maybe even enough to get me through to the weekend, when I might rip the house apart to find book 2. *shrug* I hate having to stop reading in the middle of the series. Particularly, when I know I have the next book. But I’m trying to focus on the good things about today here; so that’s enough of that. Umm, tonight was the monthly Mindbridge meeting. It appears now that I have officially taken over their webmaster duties. Spif. Now I just need to finalize our plans regarding the hosting and what I’ll be basing their site on. As mentioned in previous postings, their current site is a nightmare of M$ FrontPage generated vomit and since I’m a lazy git; I want to implement a CMS. Of course, I also need to know what all they want out of the site and if they want to merge their Yahoo! group into the real site or to keep that seperate. It’ll be a lot of work, but I’m oddly looking forward to it, even –and this is the kicker– in my *grumpf* mood. Anyway, that’s enough for tonight; so good night inkernet  vast repository of porn  all you people out there in TV land. Ah screw it, stop reading this drivel and go get yourself some sleep.

1 I’m not really going to get into it further here; as I need to keep my job. So let is suffice to say some people have left the company recently due to changes that are a result in the company having been bought out. I respect their decision and somewhat wish I could take the moral high ground with them. However, I’m in a 2 person household with a 1 person income and plenty of bills; so that’s not really an option for me. *grumpf*
2 Sometimes I surf the internet. Other times I play video games. Occassionally I’ll watch some anime, but lately I’ve been really enjoying kicking up my feet and reading in peace & quiet. *sigh*

Well, we took Capt. Jack to the vet this morning. He’s got 4 teeth that need to be pulled. *ugh* Still, once those teeth come out; his breath will get better and I’ll wager he won’t be scratching at his face quite so much which all means that he should be feeling a lot better after today. Though the old bank account won’t be. *sigh* Ah well, as they say “easy1 come, easy go.” In other feline news, I noticed that the spots that Jack has scratched at the most along his back have all appeared to be completely healed up and his fur is growing back in. Before long, I image he’ll actually be a good looking cat; instead of being adorably ugly like he is now.2

Oh and for those people out there who can’t stand it when a blogger talks about their cat; go stuff yourself. Nobody forces you to read any blog; you read blogs because something about them caught your attention. Be it the site design or the content. If a blog starts to annoy you; then stop reading it.

1 Though I’m not so sure it was all that easy to come by.
2 Ariesna would disagree with that comment about his current appearance, but this isn’t her blog. So na-nah-na-nah-boo-boo! :p

After doing a bit of house-cleaning1 and trying to fix a problem with Ariesna‘s computer2 when I decided to take a break and read some blogs off my portal page. At AWelkin‘s page, I ran across this link: 2005 Inaugural Celebration.

Estimated cost of the 2005 Presidential Inauguration celebration: $40 million
Amount currently pledged by the United States to aid victims of Sunday’s tsunami: $35 million
….
I read that the cost of your upcoming inauguration has surpassed $40 million. I also read this morning that the tsunami death toll has reached 114,000, and that more than 1,300 U.S. soldiers have died in Iraq since our 2003 invasion. I know too that many Iraqi civilians have suffered this past year.

I think it would be a magnanimous and inspiring act of Christian goodwill and worldwide solidarity if you were to forgo the planned inaugural celebrations this year and instead pledge those funds to worldwide disaster relief and the rebuilding of civilian infrastructure in Iraq. I think it would be a gesture that Americans, and indeed, the world, would never forget.
….

I thought that was rather inspired and stopped a moment to do the same. I post about it here to try spreading the word to encourage others to do the same.

Oh yeah, I almost forgot. I hope you all have a happy, safe & properous new year!

1 Stop that sniggering! Everybody has to clean their place some time and while I dislike doing it; sometimes the mood hits me. Today it hit me because I was drying a rug on the shower curtain bar and the water that came out of it was funny colored. It rather resembled the cat vomit that hit the rug last night; hence my desire to clean the tub before using it today.
2 Sorry dear, it’s still not working. I’ve got an alternative plan in mind now but it’s ugly. Tell you about it later.