War and Peace

R.I.P.
War and Peace
by Leo Tolstoy 2/14/3 - 3/23/3 

List of good time syncs

Apple ][
Artillery
Castle Wolfenstien
Beyond Castle Wolfenstien

386/486
F-19 Stealth Fighter
Scorch
Rampart
Wolfenstien 3D
Police Quests / Space Quests 
X-wing
Eye of the Beholder 1-3 
Sam and Max
Warcraft 2

Pentium
Dark Forces 
Starcraft
Ages of Empires 1-2 ...

3d Acelerated
Everquest 
Jedi Knight 
Jedi Knight 2 
Warcraft 3

Rain in the desert

We went boating on the colorado river yesterday. It was nice and warm yesterday, and sunny. Perfect boating weather. Incidentally, one of the funnest times I ever had was jet skiing up the river. There are sandbars in the river, just below the surface (although right now, because of the spring runoff, they are about 10 inches underwater), but on a jetski, you plane up enough to fly right over them. But, if you slowed down, you would get stuck on them. Anyway, that made for a fun time, and we might bring the jetskiis down to Arizona next spring. Yay! 

Utopia - Vacuum Brewer

Well, I broke down and bought one. After watching prices fall from 175 to 129 to 89, I found out that they have pretty much discontinued selling the Utopias. After looking around the internet and finding none to buy, and two on eBay, they might be an interesting investment for future sales on eBay. Anyway, after visiting my friend Matt last week, I realized it was a good coffeemaker, with a timer. And it made a good cup, very similar to a french press.

• "While it’s not for everyone, true coffee freaks will get a kick out of the mad science experiment known as the Starbucks Barista Utopia. Looking like a melted iMac, the Utopia is perfect for entertaining or brewing your most valuable stash of smuggled Jamaican Blue Mountain. Based on an old concept of brewing, the Utopia heats hot water in its clear bot- tom reservoir. Once boiled, the pressure forces the water up a tiny test tube to the top bowl where the coffee grounds await. The boiling hot water slowly steeps the grounds of coffee on top, returning the finished brew back down the tube for serving. The Utopia method truly delivers a better cup of coffee than drip coffee makers, but unless you have a cleanup elf in the house, Utopia is more for entertaining than everyday use."  Link 

White Coffee

I was at a local coffee shop here in Idaho today, and they had a ’trial product’ from their roaster. Anyway, what they called it was "white coffee." Immediately, I thought it was some kind of white chocolate coffee, or chocolate coated beans. However, it was espresso beans that had not been roasted to perfection, they were taken out of the roaster early, before they go black, so they were at the tan stage. Anywho, the owners of this establishment offered to have me try this stuff for
free. Since I have never tried it, and have tried worse coffee products (a.k.a. ’Mazagran’ = ’Starbucks carbonated coffee.’ one of those mazagrans was even fermented), i succumbed to the pressure. They whipped up an americano for me, and I took the lid off, and it definitely looked like herbal tea. I tasted it, and it had the flavor of (or similar to) sucking on a cedar fencepost. It could also be comparable to some of the herbals teas people drink (e.g. lavender sunshine, apricot disaster, lemon nightmare). They said it had a nutty taste to it. Anyway, I just thought I would type this out, if for some reason my body rejects this stuff and I don’t make it to tomorrow  And, also, so that all you coffee people out there would know not to get some undercooked espresso in the name of progress.

Whilst coffee beans unroasted have not have their powers unlocked, once they are roasted to perfection the little green pills become black, and the magic of vitamin "coffee" is born.

One more caveat: beware of any establishment that spells espresso as expresso.

"A fencepost a day keeps the walrus away" 

"Them grinds, they are a changin’"    

Bonneville

Yesterday, I went with a bunch of friends to Bonneville hot springs. yay! 

I am victorious.

I have dispatched Metroid Prime in the alloted rental time. The universe is safe once again. Now I can get back to the massive reading for the winterim class that starts in two weeks. The good part is that the reading is interesting and mostly ’new to me’ material.
The books on the docket:
The class will be taught by Wayne Grudem, who I am really excited to learn from, as he is a great scholar, well published, and the mix will make school a bit exciting for that week.
Biblical Foundations for Manhood and Womanhood, Recovering Biblical Manhood and Womanhood: A Response to Evangelical Feminism.