I guarantee* that the following all-natural AdamSpecial (“CafeKeek” in honor of my now-undoubtedly-horrified French friends) will put a pep in your step, will put the mmmmm in mooove, will take the ache out of awake…
Required…
1) Coffee beans + grinder (ideal) OR not-terribly-fine-ground coffee (okay) OR instant coffee (will do in a pinch; can ignore French press/strainer instructions)
2) Milk (ideally non-fat, optionally low-fat) OR milk substitute that can be heated/drunk hot or warm
3) French press OR extra container + a strainer
4) Teaspoon
5) and - unless you don’t like sweet stuff—one of the following Adam-named add-ins
- “Plain Sweetie”: Sugar—one to two teaspoons per cup of milk.
- “Chocolate Jesus”: Pure unsweetened cocoa powder and sugar (one teaspoon each per cup of milk) OR pre-sweetened chocolate syrup / cocoa powder (Nestle Quik does not count!)
- “Cuckoo du mint”: The Jesus ingredients above + three drops pure mint extract per cup of milk OR Trader Joe’s mint cocoa powder
Instructions for making CafeKeek…
1) Boil milk OR heat milk in microwave (ideally use a microwavable measuring cup or similar item for easy pouring)
2a) Got a French press? Put in the ground coffee but not other ingredients.
2b) Using a strainer? Add ground coffee to intermediate container (that you can easily pour from into your drinking cup)
3) Pour hot milk into either French press or intermediate container. Wait 5 minutes.
4) Pour coffee-soaked hot milk into drinking container (using strainer if you didn’t use a French press)
5) Add optional other ingredients and stir with teaspoon.
6) Enjoy, then come back here and write a comment about how much you loved it and how you’re eternally grateful to me and so on.
7) Repeat, but probably not on the same day.
Strongly recommended in conjuction with CafeKeek…
- Protein—either a handful of nuts or some peanut butter on a cracker, etc.
- Potassium—a banana works great (half of one is fine)
- Exercise—no time for a real workout? Prefix the incomparable CafeKeek with 18 jumping jacks or 18 seconds of jump-roping or anything else to quickly get your heart pumping. I’m serious about this… it really helps!
* * *
Okay, now it’s your turn. What natural foods / practices do you use to help wake you up? (so, yeah, those energy drinks with unpronounceable ingredients don’t qualify here)
*Guaranteed satisfaction, or your pro-rated BLADAM subscription fees reimbursed!
Saturday, March 31, 2007
Saturday, March 10, 2007
I hesitate to read your opinions when I can't talk back
Please forgive the unsexy title. I know it would have been far more Diggable if I had titled it "Top 10 Reasons Why Your Opinion Blog Needs Comments."
Anyway... I can sometimes enjoy link blogs ("101 uses for a paper mache African swallow. No, European!") without comments. Or info-blogs (new product released, site will be down next Tuesday, check out these new features).
But blogs in which the AUTHOR is mostly discussing his or her opinions about stuff, or blogs that cover controversial stuff (news stories, culture, etc.)... damn, those better have comments enabled, or they won’t get my eyeballs for long.
For instance, I’m looking at you, BoingBoing. Aside from the fact that I have (somewhat) of a life that precludes reading a bazillion entries a day that are talking at me, not with me… when it’s uber-oh-so-important-or-popular sites, I’ll be bound to find the same links in my friends’ blogs anyway.
Yes, I know, comment and trackback spammers are a bitch. I hope their nether-regions suffer from this and/or they are forced to be locked in a closet with Vanna White night after night after night after night. But with good software, good plugins (YAY, Akismet!), and a little elbow grease, these cretins are substantially less of a problem.
I have mixed feelings when it comes to comments on corporate blogs.
Positives:
Negatives:
So I’m curious… do you feel the same way I do?
- Do you also draw distinctions amongst link, info, and opinion/commentary blogs?
- Do you care one way or the other about comments on blogs or not?
Anyway... I can sometimes enjoy link blogs ("101 uses for a paper mache African swallow. No, European!") without comments. Or info-blogs (new product released, site will be down next Tuesday, check out these new features).
But blogs in which the AUTHOR is mostly discussing his or her opinions about stuff, or blogs that cover controversial stuff (news stories, culture, etc.)... damn, those better have comments enabled, or they won’t get my eyeballs for long.
For instance, I’m looking at you, BoingBoing. Aside from the fact that I have (somewhat) of a life that precludes reading a bazillion entries a day that are talking at me, not with me… when it’s uber-oh-so-important-or-popular sites, I’ll be bound to find the same links in my friends’ blogs anyway.
Yes, I know, comment and trackback spammers are a bitch. I hope their nether-regions suffer from this and/or they are forced to be locked in a closet with Vanna White night after night after night after night. But with good software, good plugins (YAY, Akismet!), and a little elbow grease, these cretins are substantially less of a problem.
I have mixed feelings when it comes to comments on corporate blogs.
Positives:
- Bullshit can be called out or, on a less severe note, readers can offer corrections, add useful contextual info, etc. (hopefully resulting in better blog entries in the future and more informed readers)
- Readers can request for clarifications or additional info from the company. But see the flipside of this below.
- Occasional registration requirements aside, commenting has a comparatively low barrier to entry, meaning that quality input is sometimes more likely to be offered when commenting, not just forum posting, is available.
- Comments can often be generally insightful and/or entertaining… sometimes more than the blog entries themselves :-D.
Negatives:
- Someone’s gotta monitor those comments… to delete spam, to (ideally, IMHO) delete offensive and off-topic crapfests, to note info to take back to other employees, to correct misconceptions or outright lies, and to (potentially) answer questions in-line. That takes time… sometimes a LOT of time. Time that, one could argue, might be better spent actually tackling questions in a forum, fixing bugs, speaking at conferences, retooling UIs, or even getting sleep. And let’s face it: tech support, at least, is most likely pretty damn inefficient via blog comments (“Help! When I turn on my qpod, it doesn’t work!”).
- Sometimes comments can draw out the worst in folks, especially anonymous folks. Even simple, informative posts can trigger shockingly nasty and uncomfortable exchanges… making the company not only less likely to blog, but (non-masochistic) customers or potential customers less likely to read the blog or even respect the company.
- Major companies can be attractive targets for comment/trackback-spamming script kiddies.
So I’m curious… do you feel the same way I do?
- Do you also draw distinctions amongst link, info, and opinion/commentary blogs?
- Do you care one way or the other about comments on blogs or not?
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)



ShareThis