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Well it seems like a month ago now, but just this Wednesday was unbelievably warm. I went outside wearing a jacket and a light scarf and was getting questioning stares from people in shorts and tank tops. I get very wary of early spring temps, because as illustrated by today's weather they don't stick around. But I did celebrate by making one of my favorite spring time salads- the nicoise! Truth be told, I'm a sucker for any salad with a name, Ceaser, Cobb, Ill even mess around with a Waldorf now and again. If i see a menu at a restaurant with one of the aforementioned salads, you can betcha bottom dollar I'm ordering it... and getting disappointed by it. The phrase "Mmm.. I think Ill get a Cobb." is often followed by the saddened cries of: "There's no avocado on this!" or "This dressing is all wrong"

So I took my destiny into my own hands and made a nicoise just the way I like it. Eggs boiled just right, with the twist of some oven dried tomatoes to lend some sweetness..and the bf said it was the best one he ever had! I must say I have to agree. Recipe courtesy of Gwennie Paltrow.

As you know I have been keeping myself busy with a lot of wedding planning and wedding related things recently. Today I wanted to share a little peek at a project I am working on this summer for my friend Brooke. She is the lovely owner of a fave Brooklyn haunt called Manhattan Inn in Greenpoint. She came to me with so many good ideas that I knew planning her wedding was going to be very fun. So far we have narrowed down the aesthetic to a woodland romance theme, and are going to incorporate lots of moss, candles and details that conjure up the feeling of an enchanted forest. Here is the mood board I put together for her. Will be exciting to see how things unfold!

For more mood boards go here. For info about moss graffiti check this out!

Here is a video of a baby anteater, an evening impromptu concert by a brother and sister, and a huge ancient iga tree waving in the wind on Finca de Eleta coffee farm in Panama. I always post about the...

In the dusty summer of 1964, I was a 5 year old looking forward to entering Grade One.

To be honest, I kind of new that the gig was up. Had been living free and easy all these years. No responsibility. Long days of shooting the breeze, watching over our 4 acres of hay and horses and apples.

One afternoon, late August, in a moment of mischief, I tossed my sisters one and only Beatles album around like a Frisbee – not understanding the dynamics of plastics, glass and other fragile items that might break – and this one did… into a million pieces.

So into the back of a 1963 Chevolet pick up truck I was tossed by a neighbor with the approval of my mom and 8 bucks (I think it was, if that – to buy a new copy)…
Twist and Shout by the Beatles – released in February 1964. Literally days before an entire continent would be glued to their TV sets as the fab-4 would perform for the first time on national television. And I was there.

In the year 2012 one never sees children flopping around the back of a hay filled Chevy but in 1964 it would have been commonplace. And so it was: Off to the Eaton’s on Douglas at View Street. It would be a year before the greatest Christmas catalog of all time would be released; the 1965 Wish book from Eaton’s.

Digress.

After picking up the new LP I was whisked to a farm in the countryside where my older sister was riding horses. And much to her surprise she was curious that I was dropping off a brand new copy of a record – this was my parents idea of remedial justice. Thankfully, I was not judged too harshly.
“New Beatles album? What is wrong with the old one?”
Funny observation from that point – I replied, “They broke up…”
“WHAT!” My 10 year old sister shrieked… NOW she was mad.
It took some quick hand gestures while looking up at this girl who was easily 2 feet taller than me… “No, no… record… broken… hundreds of…”

It all worked out after that.

From that point on I started paying very curious attention to each and every Beatles release – because my much older sister bought each and every one – and with each record their music was evolving – morphing into something more adult each and every day.

By February 1967, I was a much, much older 9 year old – with more sophisticated tastes. While watching American Bandstand one Saturday morning with a youthful Dick Clark, he introduced a newfangled “promotional film” by the Beatles (we can them videos now…) for the songs “Penny Lane” and “Strawberry Fields”
I remember the reaction of many of the kids in the audience – of shock that the Beatles had moved on leaving many of them behind in their bobby socks.
Not me. I had known for some time that Beatlemania was over baby. It was well over by the summer of 1966… another hot and dusty Summer where old 60’s pick up trucks and beat up cars would play an important role…

In my life.

For Andrea and I, every day of the year is a potential dine around event.
But here in Victoria, right now – it is dine around and we are trying to take advantage of it – we have a few places lined up this week.

This previous Friday we did Bon Rouge – a sexy French Bistro Restaurant at 611 Courtney Street with dear friends Mark and Valerie.

Bon Rouge is the kind of place where you would almost expect characters from the French thriller “Diva” to appear, conspiring in a dark corner over one of Bon Rouges signature $5 martinis. Pretty sure I saw a couple of guys in dark suits up to no good. They were drinking vodka martinis and were clearly fomenting revolution…

I digress.

It was a busy and blustery Friday night in Victoria with just a vermouth twist of warmth in the air – none to soon: Winter has been going on way to long!

We were a tad early so we were seated at the bar. Andrea ordered a vodka martini with a twist of lemon. I ordered a small French press of insanely strong coffee (Fernwood) and some bread. The bread never showed up – but that was OK – we were soon to be relocated to the dining room, more or less on time.

Bon Rouge is a big room (3 rooms actually) and its biggest plus is the table layout, some great private booths and acoustics perfect for intimate chats – even between 4 folks.

Bon Rouge, for a French restaurant has service that I would describe as casually detached (some would call it slow, I wouldn’t) and maybe slightly less attentive than maybe it could be. But from where I am sitting (as an industry consultant), it’s not that bad. Lots of the food is of the “slow” category. For instance, I ordered the beef marrow appetizer – takes 20 minutes to prepare minimum and it was at the table to the second. Andrea had a shrimp and prawn ceviche that was very good. Mark has an Onion soup that appeared more like a 1/3 of a soup – also good. Valerie had the same appetizer as Andrea. No one was complaining.

I had bone marrow at a French restaurant in the Napa valley – Bistro Jeanty – and it was amazing – the marrow at Bon Rouge was a let down in comparison – there were a few nibbles and some bread… maybe a tablespoon of marrow. Sad colin.

In the mains, I had pork three ways; cheek, porchetta and bacon with some grilled vegetables (parsnips) and an awesome demi glace. For me, pork anything tastes too good to be healthy and this was no exception.
Andrea had the lamb & lamb (sausage and shank) with bitter wilted greens.
Valerie had the trout – and Mark had the lamb times 2 like Andrea.

Mark and Valerie shared a creme brulee and Andrea and I sampled one of Bon Rouge’s simple cheesecakes.

Bon Rouge is not World class French – but neither are the prices. If anything, it is the New Wave of French cuisine. There is too much humor and too little stuffiness to make it pure French. And we love it for the most part.

The four of us had a great time. It has been a really challenging week and the conversation was key at this gathering. In some ways we could have just at easily eaten at Boston Pizza or Earls and cover the ground we did that evening. But we were at Bob Rouge… and all was well.

Dinner for 4 – around $200 less adult beverages.

Happy leap day everyone! I have to say this is the first time i really took notice of leap day and I fully credit 30 Rock. Kinda strange that it happens every four years and we do nothing to commemorate it, what a gift to have an extra day in the month! I love an excuse to celebrate for not reason and do something out of the ordinary. Today I dont have anything exciting planned, im going to cash in a Gilt group coupon and check out this Korean fried chicken place, MonoMono in the east village.

Have noticed some trends developing over the last year or so – and it might be part of the current economic slump while tied into modern tech-etiquette…

Tech-etiquette: A bit of an oxymoron.

I have been doing IT and web stuff since World Wide Web day 1 (as a side thing…) – which takes us to the mid nineties. That is long long ago in internet time. Try explaining to a young person, a time before smart phones and personal devices… texting and social media, etc.

“Please, Tell me more grandpa.”

Well, it seems that technology has become so advanced and so accessible to everyone and so “point and click…” than anyone can do it.

Which on the surface would seem great and all – and very convenient, but it does not underline the actual complexity of the underlying technologies.

Websites for instance: On my islandnet account I can actually log in, click one button, make a few selection of some plugins, give my blog a name, and within a minute have a very pretty blog – which I can then keep auto-updated with the additional clicks of a mouse.

A monkey could do this.

But wait: There is still the issue of access. Of content. Of media. Of SEO. Of security and so on. To this day I still need to explain (to lay internet users) very carefully that “The Web” has evolved beyond HTML editors, FTP clients and a desktop cluttered with tools… into a largely “server-side” World – where everything is “out there” “in the clouds” as it were.

We are a generation of instant deployment and remote content managed online entities… and most people do not know it yet.

Which brings us to the issue of effectively valuing and marketing your talents in an environment that sees everything as instant and cryptic at the same time.

Instant in that your cousin or nephews girlfriends kid brother can create a blog or web presence for you in minutes. They cannot tell you what you can do with it beyond the initial rush of launch moment or what is under the hood…
that is the cryptic part. Nor can they create actual content or understanding marketing or connect you with the right match for you product or ideas. Nope. They cannot. Because they understand the surface technology like their understand the face of their iPhone of the dashboard of their Honda Civic. Under the hood? Haven’t a clue. Aren’t there people for that?

Thrice in the last couple of months I have had 3 separate scenarios play out:

a.) A web site (I have been maintaining) and a company that I have been working with for almost a decade, all hands on, all regularly updated and checked announced to me one day while I was brainstorming an important update… “We have a new developer and our new site, being beta tested, is over here…”
Uhm. Hello? How about a word to your loyal web guy who has been doing this all this time? Oops, says the company owner. “Yea, I guess we could have let you know…”

b.) Was planning a major build to a media company for almost 2 years – with promises from the owner, “Yup, Colin… you are the guy.” We spent many, many e-mail working out the details and as we approached the day we would finally tackle the bricks and mortar of the site… “Oh… My son-in-law… a real web whiz kid with this sort of thing… you know family… they come first… I will call you if the work he does goes South…”

c.) Same as in b.) but a different project. This time it was the daughters BF or something… “Struggling young people making their way…”
OK – so I get and appreciate that. I do.

When your car breaks, do you take it to the factory trained mechanic or to your Uncles girlfriend because she likes the feeling of grease under her fingers? When your Air Canada flight is blasting down the runway, hope and pray that the avionics were tested by someone that knows what they are doing and not someones jack-of-all nephew. They are geeks too.

Point is: It is hard to come across as a professional when nobody understands what the heck it is that you do… beyond the surface sheen that is. And yet results vary between professions.

Sigh. Apparently it is World Pancake Day today. Ironic that it is not World Syrup Day for another couple of weeks…

And too bad people do not take the time to remember a little common courtesy when engaging technical professionals (like a lot of people that are reading this right now…)

Geeks are people. Learn a bit about us. And treat us like people. And thanks!

Well hello strangers. I cant believe it is February and I have yet to post anything in 2012. Yes, truth be told, this blog has gotten rather dusty and I must confess I am not so enthusiastic about blogging in general. It seems that the web is just clogged with regurgitations of other people's original ideas and sometimes when I troll through my reader I wonder: what is the point? But I must regroup and say to myself, "I started this blog for a sense of my own satisfaction, not to impress others. To organize my own ideas and fuel inspirations. Who cares if no one reads it?" I used to find myself doing a search on my own blog to find a particular recipe or inspiration photo, it became a catalog of sorts. I hope to get a redesign underway fairly soon so that the whole thing is a little more user friendly and snazzy, so stay tuned for that.

As of 2012, let me get you caught up. In January I went on an amazing trip to Tulum Mexico. It was an art and yoga retreat headed up by my mom, my aunt and dear friend Rachael. You can learn more here. Pretty much life changing to say the least, and highly recommended. Then upon my return to NYC, I kicked off a 21 day detox diet, to cleanse my body and mind even further and found it to be a spectacular way to greet the new year. The one I did is called the clean program and it is endorsed by none other than my fave, Gwynnie Paltrow. I got her cookbook for Christmas and tada: girl crush. You can read about her experience and get great clean recipes on goop. But basically I can tell you that this is the only cleanse I have ever done that I didnt want to see end. Aside from missing chocolate a wholehellofalot, it was pretty easy going and made me feel great. Basically the philosophy is trimming the fat of processed foods and hard to digest ingredients so that your body runs more efficiently. 

At the end of the cleanse, boom: fashion week. I don't know what to say about it except that everyone who is there complains about being there and everyone that isn't feels left out. The whole thing is a bit of a facade and isn't built for reality, clothes that no one can afford, to wear to events that don't exist. But the interesting thing for me is watching what people wear backstage. Timeless pieces that look fashionable but are still wearable for real life.  It got me thinking about my own wardrobe and bringing the principles I gleaned from my lovely clean cleanse into my shopping habits. I went through my closet and got rid of anything that didn't survive my strict line of questioning, and only then I could fill the gap with things I really needed to tie it all together. "Trim the fat, and nourish the whole." I have weird sporadic shopping habits, and if my closet were a refrigerator lets just say it would be filled with crusts of old bread, some carrots and a few tins caviar. I needed some protein, which in this analogy equals a pencil skirt, some black boots and a sleek wear- to- work dress. Are you following me? What good is caviar if you have nothing to put it on?! So I thought I'd share my six questions, that I apply when closet cleaning and shopping these days:

1. Is it chic?

(this is a relatively simple question, but now that I have crossed over to my 30s I feel that i have enough boyfriendy flannels and flowery princess tops. I'm hanging on to a few beacuse they serve a purpose, but I definitely dont need to purchase more.)

2. Is it flattering?

(You'd be surprised how much stuff I have that I just dont feel cute in. Or it chings in the wrong places. This is a common side effect attending too many clearance sales. Or buying without trying on, my favorite thing to do. It also stops you from holding on to those jeans that once fit you but are now too baggy in the butt.)

3. Is it timeless?

(I am a glutton for a trend but normally trends that look good on you stand the test of time. I don't think leggings are going anywhere because they just work too well with knee high boots and are comfortable. A Pucci scarf may not be something I wear every day but you never get rid of iconic prints. NEVER!)

4. Would I want to be photographed in it?

(I know people say that if you haven't worn something for a year you should get rid of it, but sometimes you have a fancy dress and the right occasion hasn't presented itself. Instead my advice to people is would you want to photographed in this or would you pack this to go with you on a trip. I find that the things you would take with you somewhere are the most telling that it is a piece you love and you plan to wear. Also this question weeds out the yellow pit stained tees that have no place in anyone's closet IMHO.)

5. Do I have stuff to wear with it? 

(Usually if the answer to this question is a no it means you are stepping out of your comfort zone for a trend and the item will just sit there collecting dust. also helpful to imagine what shoes you'd wear because often this stops us from wearing things.)

6. Would ____________ wear it? 

(This is a "fill in your personal style icon" question and it helps if you have a one or a few people who are similar to you in body type/ coloring, and always look good. I tend to utilize Sienna Miller, Gwenyth Paltrow and Blake Lively. I also keep a folder of street style gals for ideas on how to put together looks from stuff I already have. It helps if you have a few who aren't huge celebs so you can get ideas for everyday. My blog go-tos are Sincerely Jules for rocker boho, and Atlantic Pacific for prep with an edge.) see below for some faves.

  

 

And since I cant promise that I will be blogging daily on here like i used to follow me on pinterest or on instagram (thingiliketolookat) for a niblet of what I'm up to. xo!

I get lots of coffees to sample in the course of a year – a lot of it I buy myself… some of it makes its way here after an offer to taste is received in the e-mail.

In 2012 I hope to write up more of the beans that I have been sampling.

So let’s jump in with David Lynch’s Signature coffee; his house coffee and his espresso.
Not going to call them a blend because I believe that they are single origin Oaxacan coffees from a single farm in Mexico.

I brewed David Lynch’s signature coffee – seemingly sourced and roasted for drip coffee. Like most of Lynch’s work, the coffee, brewed as drip, is immediately challenging – This is not your average single origin Mexican coffee and it has some odd flavors in the cup that are off putting but at the same time kind of persuasive.

There is a lot of chocolate in the cup but also subtle hints of rubber, resin and pine solvent… deep, deep in the mix.

Thankfully, my brain tuned most of the nasty stuff (which was way down in the mix – playing it honest here…) the chocolate and sugar came through.
A second brew cycle came through a little better (ran a Hario paper filter on the 2nd brew) and it offered a little bit more clarity with less “industry” in the cup.

It is said that Mister Lynch drinks upwards of 15 cups of this brew a day.
I could do two. It is not a bad coffee. Is moderately interesting and upon closer inspection is roasted by Allegro coffee. The one problem with branding coffee in this way is that most people are more surprised that an edgy movie director would put his name on a bag of coffee. It’s an odd juxtaposition.

From our new friends at Simple Industries Inc. in Ottawa, Ontario comes a couple of bags of their 100% Ridgelyne Jamaica Blue Mountain.
Now this is something I can relate to: A cup of coffee that is all fruit, a bit of chocolate and not a hint of bitter or imbalance.

One of the minor challenges of sourcing JBM is (and I am going to get spam comments in no time…) is getting it fresh (meaning out of the roaster and to my door within a week or so…) – for most of us, it is almost impossible UNLESS it is bought green and roasted locally or regionally. Ridgelyne is roasted in Jamaica and shipped to Ottawa and then shipped from there. Risky. That said, my samples had only hints of staling – likely out of the roaster 2 or 3 weeks. For most people (normal folks that do not obsess about subtlety in the cup), this is not that much of a problem.

The Ridgelyne JBM has lots of fruit in the cup; plum by and large, a mild side that Andrea thought was “Kona like” – I did not taste that. I got lots of balance, no bitterness and a very full body that was all fruit and flowers with few chocolate or cocoa notes in the cup. The website offers it for around $35/pound (down from $50/pound elsewhere…) and refers to it as the most coveted cup of coffee on the Planet. Yes, for most people, JBM is associated as old school luxury coffee – and for good reason. It tastes great.

In the rest if this blog (tomorrow likely…) I will go over some more of the details of the JBM (all good) and get back to the David Lynch coffee to talk about his signature espresso.

The Bonavita drip brewer – lucky to have one to play with. Thanks to Theresa at Supramatic in Ontario and Todd Larrabee for being part in dreaming up this thing.

The Bonavita is something of a “port” on the Dutch made coffee wunderkind, the Technivorm – as much great coffee maker as it is Rube Goldberg brewing machine – for my taste, spot on brewing numbers but one too many moving parts.

The Bonavita strips away all the nonsense and leaves us with a 1400 watt engine and a sound and righteous water heating tower, a Melitta #4 filter holder and a volume rich glass carafe. The on/off switch pretty completes the complement. Shuts itself off in 15 minutes if you forget. Brews a full pot of perfectly hewn joe java in less than 6 minutes – all at the unflinchingly perfect brew temp. of 197 degrees (F)

Going to do a full review on this great, and affordable brewer in a day or two!

Click on any of the three pictures for a larger view – Picture a: Temperature observations of the carafe and brew basket
Picture b: Keeping time with the triple glass timer from Silk Road Tea
Picture c: The Bonavita tower mated with a Hario V64 ceramic holder and a Hario glass carafe.

Looking back on what I have written about Hawaii, I smugly thought to myself…

I have most certainly written everything that has to be said about travel to, living on and returning safely from the Big Island of Hawaii.

Fail on that account.

This trip was entirely different – we embraced it differently – we approached it more from a “If this is the last time we do Big Island Hawaii for a while, let’s approach it like the buffet table on the 1st night of a cruise…” perspective.
Which was very effective. Did more stuff. Went more places.

Photo above – the up view at Magic Sands Beach – Alii Drive Kona – could have shot my horizontal perspective but that would have been bikini’s and bronzed dudes!

Tried some different things. Have a few more things to suggest. And some warnings for those who need to be reminded that, hey, listen up… there are hazards and you need to be warned.

Directing that more yours truly than anything else – but it makes for a good story I think.

Right off the top, this is going to be the last month long departure from home for some time to come. We both work – we both have a solid family connection here – and dang it, I love Victoria and I am a home body – and becoming more of one as time goes on.

That said, 25 odd days in paradise is hard to beat. And I have discovered a couple of things.

Thing A:) I take very little time winding down into the Island groove… often as little as a couple of days – this time was no exception.
Here is how it works: Plane arrives on Kona mid-day. Get off plane. Get baggage. Collect some brochures after visiting the lav. Get on shuttle to rental car kiosk. Thank you to Avis for years of great service! Drive to Kona Brewing company for a pizza and a beer. Drive to Cost Co for a quick shop. Drive to Safeway for some more supplies. Drive to Kona village condo to “get in” and dump bags. By 4 PM we are by the pool with a drink in our hands. If we are feeling energetic, we head down to “Don the Beachcomber” (great Mai Tai, very sketchy food) for a quick snack and a couple of strong drinks…
and in bed early because we are exhausted from being up at 5 AM for the 6:30AM connector flight from Victoria to Seattle.

Photo above – Iki Crate hike – 2.5 hours – take a minimum of 1 liter of water per person. You will lose this amount of fluid. I did and I didn’t have enough water. Result: Next chapter.

Note to readers: I avoid Vancouver International Airport in favor of Seattle because, IMHO, everything is better in Seattle. Another blog on this subject in the future.

Early days in Kona include medium to long walks early in the day to get acclimated – Kona is not tropical and not overly hot but it is not the North West and you will get dehydrated pretty quickly if you do not pay attention and badly sunburned if you do not load up with sun block.

So – quickly: What did we do more differently?
The weather was really good and the surf was not too high so we spent way more time at Magic Sands Beach on Alii Drive – a great small beach about 1.5 miles from our Condo (at the Hale Kona Kai…) It is a great beach for body surfing (board surfing further down the beach) and snorkel. Average shore break is 3 to 7 feet this time of year and has to be considered very, very dangerous to those not familiar with Hawaii water hazards.

Photo above – the calm that is Alii Drive on a Wednesday (Cruise ship day) directly across the street from Island Lava Java Cafe – photo by Shari Morkin of Illinois

More people drown in Hawaii than any other state or Province in North America.
In 3 visits early on in our trip I witnessed three mishaps requiring Life guard and/or first responder intervention – Life guards in Hawaii actually are Firemen if I did my research correctly.

A couple of the mishaps involved turning ones back on the water. Here is the thing. Never, ever turn your back on the ocean – If you are in the wrong position when the wave breaks it is like having a 600 sq. foot apartment filled with water dropped on you. Best case scenario – you will get picked up and tossed backward 15 or 20 feet. Worse case: You will tumble under the water and your head and neck will get pushed into the sand. I saw both these things happen – and it is not pretty – and it is particularly frightening if you are just visiting and this is the start of your vacation.

Personally, I learned my water limits in 1996 – and that means never go much further out that waist level in the water – because the breakers are going to be double or triple that. Prepare to jump or tuck and torpedo under the approaching break – know how and it will save your life.

In the next chapter, more about… you guessed it… Hawaii!
Hawaii Photo-Gallery here.

Meal at Bubba Gump Shrimp Co. on Alii Drive in Kona.

This place was massively hammered by the Tsunami in March 2011 – the community pulled together and had the restaurant up and running again in 24 hours. That was the way it was all the way around the damage zone.

Many people do not know this but the Kona Village (some 25 minutes up the highway towards N. Kona and Kohala – was utterly devastated by the wave – and they will not be rebuilding. Sadly, they had one of the best Luau going.

Anyway. Nature lashes out – and people pull together.

Below is a shot of nature at its gentlest. A sunset. We get one a day.
Enjoy it folks. It is a precious thing.
Click on the photo for the bigger view

Shared a picnic table with a friendly, but slightly twitchy praying mantis – eventually he walked onto a stick (a real stick) and moved off to a safer area.

We met with the good folks from Blue Horse Kona down in Kealakekua Bay – home of great swimming and snorkel activities – this was also an area that was hard hit by the tsunami of March 2011 – whole houses were ripped off of their foundations and dragged out into the bay.

The view here is spectacular – Kealakekua Bay is home to the Captain Cook memorial and the works largest cliff side mausoleum – (more on that on a later blog of our trip…)

Photo taken by former art director for Prada (yea, the fashion company…) – Joachim, owner partner at Blue Horse Kona Coffee. Click on the photo for a bigger view.

Proving several things.
God has a sense of humor – watching this fella (or lady) struggle to get up to the dry lava rock, tells me that we all have our struggles but there is always a reward.

And that we are not the only important creatures on this planet (having seen a dozen whales and hundreds of dolphins the last few weeks…)

Sometimes the best part of getting away, is getting in touch with reality.

Photo taken from at least 25-35 feet away with a long zoom – Turtles are protected and should not be approached, harassed or played with.

A subtle reminder that there are great places on the planet – peaceful, surrounded by a vast ocean, seemingly insulated from the rigors of daily life… at least for a few weeks of the year.

Photo below: The balcony at the Hale Kona Kai – Kona, Hawaii.

A typical day in Kona Hawaii almost always involves a cup of great coffee to start your day – a swim at one of many great sandy beaches – often with shore break capable of breaking your neck – so show respect…

And the people! The people of the Island of Hawaii love their life and they love their guests.
What better gig than to live and work here – Like Dr. Shawn Steiman (photo below to the right of yours truly — the visitor…)

Shawn is doing some work with the local coffee community and we are catching up over coffee at Kona de Pele Coffee on Alii Drive, Kona. Arguably some of the best coffee to be drinking – brewed right – Hario pour over – measured and brewed to precision.

Next photo: Typical sunset off of our lanai off of Alii Drive in Kona Hawaii – this is what we look at, day after day – if you have never seen a sunset like this, you owe yourself the pleasure of the visit.

Sitting by the pool today noticed a glint in the ocean… which was around 15 feet away.

I know – begs the question: Why build a small heated pool a few feet away from a gargantuan sized salty heated pool. Who am I to argue.
While we sunned by the pool we could hear the shouts of folks in their shuttered condos watching Sunday football – I know… that does not make sense either.

Hawaii – truly a land of mystery.

The real mystery awaits you below – it caught our eye. An iridescent glow above and below the water – like purple laser beams that flashed brighter as waves of water passed over the outcropping – I am assuming a fluorescent algae bloom – honestly, I have never seen anything like it. For once, a photo does no justice.

Will try and do a photo a day to encapsulate my experience.

Below our balcony – again, inches from the Pacific Ocean. This fellow flirted with the ocean life for an hour and came up empty handed… or did he?

Having acquiesced to pressure from my chief significant other (she) having grown tired of watching me hover over my Asus Eee PC 4G (and its 7” screen) like a microbiologist examining a specimen…

I finally departed mid-2007 and came into the modern times with a Toshiba Netbook model NB555D. In good time too – we have been hauling the little Asus around the World (well, back and forth to Hawaii to be exact) for many years now – running its native Fischer-Price style of Linux (Xandros if I am not mistaken…) and a handful of Live USB sticks with iterations of Ubuntu just to be safe.

I had just become fully comfortable manipulating the OS on this little sub-notebook sized unit (just installed “Leeenux” – a light duty version of Ubuntu even less bloated than Easy Peasy… The Asus Eee runs great, still does – and it will travel more – just not on the next Hawaii trip – coming up in a few weeks.

The search for a slightly better netbook was not a long one – managed to zero in on the Toshiba Netbook model NB555D fairly quickly. Simplified by the fact that I did not want another Asus (at least right away), did not want a Sony, and did not want anything running Android on a device that would be locked to that OS.

What I found kind of interesting and slightly annoying was the complete lack of any credible peer reviews of the Toshiba Netbook model NB555D – nothing. One 1 paragraph review and a you tube link. The rest were ads and zero content lazy shills with links to vendors – more of the net seems to be like that sadly.

Anyway – what of the Toshiba Netbook model NB555D? With a 10.1” LED back-lit screen and a decent size keyboard (for my large hands…) and an energy scrimping Ghz AMD processor – (superior video processing to its Intel brethren in another similar model number) – and an attractive blue shell (and an interesting finish…) I guess I was prepared to be happy from the moment of purchase.

That would not come immediately.

The Toshiba Netbook model NB555D ships with Windows 7 “starter” – but let’s call it what it is – Windows “stripped down” is more like it – but that is OK all things considered. And here is one reason why:
Windows 7 is a memory guzzler. The Toshiba Netbook model NB555D ships with 1Gb of DDR3 1066Mhz RAM – which is what the Toshiba Netbook model NB555D needs to be happy – leaving little left over for apps.

Out of the box, the Toshiba Netbook model NB555D is a slug until it gets through a series of software updates and software self optimization (A windows 7 feature – it actually “learns” some of your preferences and practices as you use it more…)
One of the first things I did was axe the “Norton Starter” that comes with it – I use AVG Free for virus protection but Microsoft Essentials (Free anti-virus) would have been a good choice too.

Next I loaded “CRAP Cleaner” – a great tool from Piriform.com (also free) and got into the start-up manager and pulled a bunch of useless utilities and “launch speeders” that accelerated the appearance of the “Login screen” from a miserable minute and a half to a respectable 50 seconds.

In a head to head with the 2007 Asus Eee 4G PC, the faster machine (the Toshiba Netbook model NB555D) actually lagged the Asus oldie in every instance.
Using Crap Cleaner really got things zipping – still slower than the much older Asus however. More on its performance after I upgrade to 2G of RAM (in a few days)… with more user comments and software tweak suggestions!

Beetles mating, baby coffee trees, slipping in the mud, and a burro. This is just a very quick-edit I made of some nice shots I took in Honduras a couple of weeks ago. Enjoy!

Here I am getting a feel for the spoken portion of the 2011 Coffee Lovers Buyers guide! Let me know what you think. In this track, we chat about the best (in our opinion) gift ideas for your coffee drinking friends and loved on. – if you cannot see the audio widget below, click here.