In my attempt to make these entries more graphic than textual (let's face it, we all prefer looking at the pictures any way!), here are a few vignettes from the past few weeks.
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| Another favourite brewing method: double espresso long. Yes, it's possible to overextract the beans and get all sorts of aweful tastes, but if one is careful and does it just right there is gaboons of crema and silky-rich espresso...mmmh. |
This semester I have cut down on my coffee consumption completely unintentionally. I was usually a two-a-day guy (morning-early afternoon) and that would bump up to three+ when the end-of-semester work began piling up. Now it's mostly one-a-day (travel mug during the commute) and, once in a while on particularly draggy days, a second after lunch. The results: I look forward to coffee even more now (if that were possible), I enjoy the taste more, and I probably sleep better. Plus the whole financial thing. Buying really good, locally-roasted, organic, fair trade beans is one frill I enjoy without guilt.
Planet Bean (the hometown roast) Ethiopian Yirgacheffe is the roast of choice for moi these days although I've also, fairly recently, enjoyed roasts from
Birds & Beans (the roast of my new neighbourhood) and some Fog City blend roast that a friend recently brought back from
Java Blend in Halifax. Dee-lish!
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| A mechanical shop near our home advertising its services. We go elsewhere. |
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| Man's best friend guarding the Man-Shed. Good dog. |
On a related Man-Shed-and-dog note, I now have the dog trained to follow me to the Man-Shed every time I go there to get something. My motivation: it's a good feeling to have your dog accompany you when you're working on something (fixing bikes, yard work, house repairs). Her motivation: he keeps TREATS in that little house!!! A little food motivation goes a long way with her.
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| Insightful documentary on urban design and the life of and in cities. |
We saw Gary Hustwit's documentary Urbanized (2011) this past Tuesday and I thought it was pretty well done. Some really nice footage and interviews -- I found the segment on Bogotá and the interview with its former mayor, Enrique Peñalosa, particularly entertaining. Living under the rule of Rob Ford certainly leaves something to be desired... Anyway, Urbanized gets my recommendation. Next in the cue of films to see are Hustwit's first two installments in his "design trilogy": Helvetica (2007, this paragraph is in Helvetica as an homage) and Objectified (2009).
Finishing off with a short film of my own. Appologies about the video quality (I shot this on my phone -- What can phones not do these days?) and the fact that it's shot sideways (I'm a video amateur).
Yes, I write about my dog. Yes, I'm one of those people. And, yes, I do so because she is the best dog in the whole wide world.
