Category: Weblog

On my frequent trips to 7-Eleven I have often noticed the inexpensive cigars behind the counter. Yesterday I decided to check them out at Cruft Labs.

Above (l-r), we are looking at Black & Mild, Black & Mild Wine, Swisher Sweet, Swisher Sweet Strawberry, Swisher Sweet Grape, Optimo Peach
Swisher Sweets and Optimo are made by Swisher International and Black & Mild are made by John Middleton, Inc. These kind of cigars tend to come in various flavors, so I had to get an assortment.
There are plenty of other types of cigars at 7-Eleven, included the interesting Backwoods and Blunts, but I figured I’d start small and move on from there.
The range of flavors available is amazing, from Cherry to Chocolate to Icy Hot. Obviously, I have more research to do.

To test, I went onto my back porch and tried them one after another, drinking beer to cleanse my palette. Obviously, I didn’t smoke the whole cigar, but I did smoke enough until I had a good feel for each one.

Black & Mild – Very light, hint of cigar. Very much of a cigarette taste. I enjoyed the plastic tip. Made it easy to hold while I wrote.
Black & Mild Wine – Smells like a strawberry fruit roll-up. Cool draw due to plastic tip. Almost a fresh grape flavor while smoking, like the smell of grapes in the store.
Swisher Sweet – Light tobacco smell, no deep aroma. Slight hint of sugar on lips. Most like a regular cigar, better than the flavored ones.
Swisher Sweet Strawberry – Strong fake strawberry smell, like a car deodorizer. Subtle strawberry taste, strong artificial flavor. A bit irritating with harsh notes. Worst of the lot.
Swisher Sweet Grape – Strong grape smell on outside. Easy, light draw. More cigar that cigarette. Light grape taste on my lips.
Optimo Peach – Overwhelming fake peach smell. Very artificial. No cigar flavor, just bland smoke. Slight peach taste on my lips.

I can see why people smoke these. They are inexpensive and quick to smoke. If you find a flavor you like, you can stick with it and find it pretty much everywhere. I was surprised how much I liked the plastic tip. It made smoking very easy. Much more straight forward than the delicate balance of holding a regular cigar in your teeth.
I think that Hunter S. Thompson was onto something with his cigarette holder. If only there was one for cigars…

Thanks to my daughter Zoe, who took photos and quizzed me while testing the cigars.

This weekend I’m heading up to Seattle for the Penny Arcade Expo aka PAX for some fun gaming time. I decided to make the trip last month to spend some time away from the office decompressing.
I haven’t blogged much lately. No particular reason, just as my buddy Martin would say, “I aint feeling the blog right now…”
My daughters have been out of town visiting their grandparents in Ohio, leaving Michele and I with unaccustomed free time.
Things we have done while the girls are away:

• I napped on the couch regularly.
• Michele rearranged the living room, tossing out much furniture.
• I watched Heat in HD.
• Michele ‘furnished’ our backyard deck.
• I played poker for 5 hours and ended up exactly $1 up.
• Michele watched pre-season NFL football.
• I stopped drinking caffeine (for a little while).
• Michele repainted the hallway.
• I replaced the old lights in the hallway with new lights.
• Michele did a 7 mile beach run
• I replaced the ivory 3 & 4 way switches in the hallway with white 3 & 4 way switches (with the circuit hot).
• We went out to dinner and saw the movie Sunshine (good).
• I installed a gig of RAM in a friend’s computer.
• We went to see the Beastie Boys at the Wiltern.
• I cleaned up my desk (kinda, but not to Michele’s standards).
• Michele began planning a bachelorette party in Vegas.
• I sorted through the last 3 years of bills and burnt them in the backyard (very satisfiying).

On the web, I’ve just been surfing around till I start to nod off at the keyboard. Here are a few cool things I’ve been spending time on:

• Buying Spoils cards and lurking on the Spoils forums.
• Playing with the HTML Tryit Editor at w3schools.com
• Reading and answering at Ask Mefi.
• Lurking on the Geekscape Forums.
• Playing with MovableType 4, it’s super kick ass.

My take on tech podcasts.

I probably should have posted this sooner, but there is a Blogger Birthday Bash this Saturday night.
If you want to hang out with me and some other LA bloggers while we celebrate multiple birthdays, please stop by.
The bar where it’s being held, Seven Grand, has a wide selection of high end spirits for those that partake.
See you there!

Today, forty years ago, in 1967, the Summer of Love, I was born.
Yes, today is my 40th birthday.
Our culture puts a lot of emphasize on this birthday, but it feels pretty normal to me. Today is very much like yesterday. I had no burst of wisdom or perspective.
Over the last forty years I have seen and done many things, but today I will share what I think is important. They are not new or original ideas, but I have found them to be true and helpful in having a happy life.
No matter how much you learn, there is always more you don’t know and people smarter than you.
Sometimes I say, “The more I know, the more I realize how much there is I don’t know.” You can never stop being willing to learn and listen to others. Everyone has something to teach you, even if it’s how not to behave. Learning something new everyday is as important as eating well and exercising. The tough part about his reality, is that people like to consider themselves an expert on a topic and feel that they need to dismiss new ideas to maintain their status as an ‘expert’. Understanding that you don’t need to be perfect and can ask others for help is amazingly liberating.
The only person’s opinion of you that truly matters is your own.
Many people spend their lives trying to live up to an ideal or image that others have created and set expectations about. You need to live your life the way that you want to live it. That doesn’t mean you can ignore others, but you should dress the way you want to dress, eat what you want to eat, listen to the music you like, and not worry about what other people think about your personal choices. Not easy to do, and not a reason to be non-conforming on purpose, the idea is to not do things because others expect you to.
Compassion and humility are the hardest virtues to practice, but they are the most important.
While everyone is a unique individual, we are surrounded by billions of other unique individuals. Coming to the perspective that the world does not revolve around yourself is hard. After this realization, you can see that helping to alleviating the pain and suffering of those we encounter, is likely our most important job in life. Having compassion for others does not require gigantic effort and sacrifice. Sometimes it is simply joking with someone that could use a smile or leaving a large tip. Having compassion for others isn’t always about the big, dramatic effort, it’s about living your life daily considering those around you. The point is to think about the needs of others more than you think about your own desires.
Humility is perhaps the toughest thing for many people to develop. Instinctively, we want others to pay attention to us and what we do. There is nothing wrong with feeling happy when you receive a compliment or a link to your weblog. 😉 Humility is focusing on the others around us and their needs rather than our own. Easy to say, tough to do.
Thank you for reading my weblog, I hope it makes you happy. Have a wonderful day, I know I will.

This week, I am in London for work. Rather than seeing the sites, I am focused on the amazing kinds of junk food to be found in Britain. Yesterday, I saw this in the company canteen. Of course, I had to try it.

I took the bottle back to my hotel room and went to work. First, notice that Coke Orange is 1% ‘orange fruit from concentrate’. A wee bit more than the usual drop of artificial flavor in most flavored drinks.

The soda pop itself looks like regular Coke. For some reason, I was expecting a bright orange color like the bottle, but it had the standard dark brown/caramel color in the glass.

When I first smelled it, the aroma of Tang, a powdered orange drink, was very strong. The smell was dominant over the usual sweet smell of Coke. After tasting a bit, I was surprised to find that the flavor was not nearly as strong. In fact, the orange taste was subtle and not that bad at all. I think that Coca Cola is counting on the strong smell and subtle taste to entice drinkers. While I likely won’t seek it out, the Coke Orange was OK and if offered it again, I wouldn’t turn it down.

How to get into Field Test mode on an iPhone:
Enter *3001#12345#* and then hit Call.
(via SoCalWUG)
From Mike Outmesguine‘s email on the SoCalWUG mailing list:

You will be presented with a menu. Strength is shown next to the RX header under the Cellular menu. And it looks like strength is shown as -dBm. For example, -80 is a good signal, while -110 is poor. The higher the number (negative number, closer to zero) the better the signal. A strength of -1 means you are sitting on the tower and need to move away before you or your phone melts.
On the iPhone, Field Test Mode also shows you something like 100 other parameters (I didn’t actually count). And I don’t know what a lot of it means… yet. The neat part is how it shows you the cell towers to which the phone is connected… the highest signal strength is listed on top (and hopefully that’s the one you are using).
If you don’t have an iPhone, here’s a list of field test modes for your phone:
https://wilsonelectronics.com/Files/PDF/PhoneTestModes.swf

I don’t listen to the radio much in the car these days. Typically, I’m listening to a podcast instead. Here’s what I like. You probably won’t find them as enjoyable, but to each their own.
1) Infected by Martin Sargent – This is the podcast with an irregular schedule that I get the most belly laughs from regularly. Hosted by Martin Sargent and his friend, The Gator, they discuss strange things found on the internet and topics that are rarely discussed. Vulgar, offensive, and hilarious, it’s not for everyone. (That means you aren’t going to like it Mom.) Guests range from porn starlets to inventors to weblebrities. I do miss Joey-Bird since he mved away. I felt he added a great presence to the show. Martin’s story is always good, but my favorite ever is Gator’s story at the beginning of episode 11.
Catchphrase: Don’t get ripped by the riptide. Quasi toe-toe!
2) SModcast – Film writer/director Kevin Smith and Producer Scott Mosier host this podcast. Simplest of all the podcasts, it’s just Kevin & Scott talking. Again, it’s vulgar, offensive, and hilarious, and I love it. It’s the way friends talk when no one is listening. Let me rephrase it, it’s the way the men talk to their long time friends. No holds barred, no censorship, nothing off topic, and no tangent goes too far.
Catchphrase: Have a week.
3) Geekscape – This podcast is the mutation of an older podcast called Geekdrome that imploded after a good run in a mysterious way. Jonathan London was the half of Geekdrome that went on to start Geekscape. His former partner, Dan Trachtenberg, went on to launch the The Totally Rad Show, which is too overproduced and saccharin for my tastes. On Geekdrome, Jonathan has gone the route of having various guest hosts, even his girlfriend, to talk about films, video games and comics. Along the way, he’s picked up quite an entourage of sidekicks that add to the flavor. Jon’s passion comes through clear and cleanly. He’d firm in his opinions and able to explain why in a way that some critics avoid. While I disagree with some of his opinions, it’s good to see him stake out unconventional positions and stick with it.
Catchphrase: Robotitties!

Those three podcasts exemplify what I find most appealing, honest talk and opinions about topics that the individuals have real passion about. Too many of today’s podcasts are simply regurgitated newscasts based on what ever is hot on the net. They may be popular, but they are so produced and careful about what they say that I find them dull. Many of the podcast aggregation sites love this kind of news podcast, but I think they are lame.

4) The Adam Carolla Show – Adam Carolla is the host of a morning radio show in many parts of the country. Not exactly a shock jock, Adam is more like a smart libertarian with common sense (unlike most Libertarian Party members). Honing his skills for over a decade on Loveline, a nightly radio show, he speaks smoothly and intelligently on most any topic. Unlike that typical radio host that strives to create drama, Adam strives to move people toward sanity in an insane world. The podcast is simply the recording of the show, broken into segments, minus the commercial breaks. I love listening to his show this way since I can skip over guests or segments I’m not interested in.
Catchphrase: Mahalo
5) Wine Library TV – First, I’m not a big wine drinker. I prefer a glass of a good scotch whisky on ice, but host Gary Vaynerchuk, is a fantastic host. His passion for wine is evident and the fluidity of his patter is impressive. Never at a loss for descriptive words for the smells and flavors of the wines he tries, it’s always an impressive performance. My only regret is that he doesn’t review whisky. If you like wine, this is a must-watch show.
Catchphrase: We’re changing the wine world, aren’t we.
6) Metafilter Podcast – A podcast that discusses the MeFi site & community by Mathowie and Jessamyn. Calm and easy going, this podcast is for people that follow the Metafilter website. With a very narrow audience, this podcast serves them well. I’ve followed the site for over 5 years and find it a relaxing listen with a few good chuckles tossed in.
Catchphrase: [none yet, but they need one]
7) Diggnation – Probably the most popular podcast on my list, I’ve been listening since the second episode. Kevin Rose and Alex Albrecht talk about popular posts on Digg.com. The topics they talk about often aren’t news to me, since I follow Digg. what’s interesting is when Kevin & Alex mix it up a bit and open up about their experience or passion about a topic. Some episodes, they seem to be phoning it in, just trying to get to the end, not really giving a shit. Other times, they are hilarious. They are at their best in front of a live audience, where their professional TV skills take over, and they really get on a roll, fueled by alcohol.
Catchphrase: Next story!

Overall, what I find interesting in a podcast is interesting people that speak from their hearts. You can get talking heads and news aggregation anywhere, but it’s not so easy to find interesting, smart people. Many podcasts don’t seem to get this. They seem to think that finding a niche and talking about recent events is enough, it’s not.
So, Loyal Cruft Readers, what did I miss?

Here are reviews of two different drinks I bumped into recently.
Diet Coke Plus
Actually, I found this at the supermarket several weeks ago, drank it, took pictures, but could muster the energy to post about it.

Who can resist Diet Coke with a theoretical benefit? Definitely not me.

I wanted to just buy a can or a six pack, but only the twelve pack was available, so Cruft Labs jumped in with both feet.
The color scheme is pleasing to me for some reason. The light blue swoosh with the rainbow style lettering. The taste was, well, the taste was like Diet Coke. I really didn’t notice anything strange or bitter.

When I actually looked at the vitamin content I was a bit disheartened. The vitamins are Niacin (B3), B6, and B12 all energy metabolism types. The minerals are magnesium and zinc. I guess those are helpful, but what about the more useful ones like vitamins C & D or iron or something else that I’ve actually heard someone need. Magnesium and zinc? They are necessary, but not the first things that pop to mind when choosing vitamins.
I wouldn’t go out of my way to buy more Diet Coke Plus, but if you are one of those Diet Coke fanatics that runs through a six pack of the stuff daily, you might find it useful.
Java Monster – Big Black
At the office, one of my co-workers, Jason, is never seen without a can of Monster in his hands. He swears by them, as does my brother, Matt.
I’ve never been one for the new style energy drinks. They all seem like slightly off versions of Gatorade to me.
But when I saw Java Monster – Big Black at 7-Eleven, I had to give it a try. Who can resist this copy:

The Java Monster isn’t bad, but it’s not great either. As you can see, the color is more like chocolate milk than coffee.

The flavor is terribly sweet with a milky flavor, with a hint of coffee flavor. I would call it a mocha rather than Big Black. I was expecting a much stronger coffee flavor.
I had a few Japanese iced coffees that are this sweet, but the can of monster is almost triple the size of the traditional iced coffee can. I drank about 2/3 of the glass before I lost interest.

Two hundred and thirty one years ago, our nations founder’s declared their independence from Great Britain. Today, we celebrate the creation our our great nations.
In my town of South Pasadena, we have a traditional parade of the community down our main street.

The Boy Scouts carried the Colors to lead the parade of local officials and groups. Everyone from bands to soccer teams to square dancers to fire trucks were in the parade.

My eldest daughter, Zoe, was given the privilege of carrying the placard for our Representative, Adam Schiff.
A simple parade like this, without overt commercialism, reminds me that the basis of our country is the simple idea that by joining together with our community, we can create a better life for everyone. In these days of political turmoil, it is good to remember that we are all in this together. Seeing families out together and bumping into friends is an important reminder that people are what’s important in this life.