Hater

I stumbled upon a crazy website the other day and laughed so hard when I saw this post on the #1 thing that white people like is coffee. I know that this is not true, but reading the rest of their posts just showed how we can stereotype people, it was a funny post though.

There is no doubt that white people love coffee. Yes, it’s true that asians like iced coffee and people of all races enjoy it. But I promise you that the first person at your school to drink coffee was a white person. You could kind of tell they didn’t enjoy it, but they did it anyways until they liked it - like cigarettes.

White people all need Starbucks, Second Cup or Coffee Bean. They are also fond of saying “you do NOT want to see me before I get my morning coffee.” White guys will also call it anything but coffee: “rocket fuel,” “java,” “joe,” “black gold,” and so forth. It’s pretty garbage all around.

If you want to go for extra points - white people really love FAIR TRADE coffee, because paying the extra $2 means they are making a difference.

Yeah, but I like coffee...

Friday Night Lights

The beginning of the weekend starts with two of my favorite little friends, Speak (with a ridiculous me a couple years ago) and Mazie. Speak is a Pekingese/Poodle mix and Mazie is a Rat Terrier/Corgi mix, so they're both small and ferociously cute. Except when they unexpectedly bark when I'm focusing on, hmm let's see, blogging?
"F*** !!! Sshhhh, quiet!"
They look at me as if to say, "What? Dude, don't tell me you didn't hear that... We totally heard that."
I love looking after these two, teaching them strange things, drinking beer and getting high, ah, oh man, the three of us just party like you can't believe. Speak was just reminding me about the ear wig of doom and how he feels like gangs now a days are nothing like they used to be. Sometimes I don't even know why I'm here, they're showing me around town. Mazie said that ladies night at the Cherokee are awesome, I think we're going tomorrow. Peace out ya'll, yo - who let the dogs out? I did!

Beans for Breakfast Once Again...

I am so scared sometimes, and then I realize that I'm hungry. I'm so angry sometimes, and then I realize that I'm hungry. I'm realizing that a lot of things in my life revolve around food, and if I've had enough. Everyone, I want you to meet my tape worm. Ok, so I don't have a tape worm as far as I know but I do know that I can eat and I'm always hungry. Really I shouldn't be surprised since I work out a lot and I have a job that makes me run around and I drive to work in a real piece of crap... Just kidding, I'd never call Missy that.
I was talking to Noah today and he was saying that he ate his own re fried beans today. "What does that mean?" I says.
"Well, it means I ate my own re fried beans, ones I made from scratch."
"What do you have to do to make them from scratch?"
Now, let me tell you I was surprised to find out how exactly to make re fried beans, it takes at least a day and a half. Involving soaking for a day, boiling, simmering, mashing and frying.
"It's really satisfying."
I imagine it is, my first time making bread was a simple Milk Bread which turned out wonderfully. It took a lot of time, I thought, but by the end I was encouraged and satisfied that the work I had done was good. I read Paul and Libby's blog once in a while and I see sometimes that they have recipes on there from time to time. I walk downstairs to see my friends and house mates on the first floor and they're almost always cooking or baking or milling wheat or something. I have lunch with Angela and she makes a phenomenal sandwich from scratch from I don't know what but tastes soooo good!
"I think we're, as westerner's, used to or expect food to be fast. And that's just not the way it is my friend. Good food takes time and the rest of the world knows this."
Sometimes I wander over to a blog that makes me laugh, or cringe most of the time, called Waiter Rant, and there's usually a story about this waiter's day to day in a restaurant. For the most part I think of the service industry when I read it, but sometimes I think of the customers and the kind of service they expect - the speed and perfection expected. Yet, they're still customers and not making the food themselves and that makes us quite delusional.
... I just wanted to write delusional... anyway, the point of all this is I think that I'm going to start making a greater effort toward the quality, and quantity, of my food intake.
I don't know, what do you think?
Maybe I'll start with this.

The Announce of a Move

It's been a crazy week... again. Earlier this week Patty had to go to the hospital because of a seizure and later found out that she has Graves Disease. That was kind've a surprise and a massive shock for her to remember walking down the street and then waking up in the ER with bruises and iv's. So all of us here at Kopplin's coffee have been trying to support Patty and help her with whatever she needs, her mom's in town so thats good too.
Today she told us that she is planning on moving back to Milwaukee as soon as possible. Which is sad. It's going to be a better setup for her in that she's from there and her parents live there, but we'll all miss her. So if you're in Milwaukee and you see an Alterra coffee house, she might just be there.

Belated Sponsor Promo

Oh dude! I just remembered that Milstead and I had an "official" sponsor...




just kidding

94 East my Friends!!

I spent a couple days away from the normal world of coffee and community and went to the cabin. Some writing was done (keep in mind that the document I posted earlier updates as I update it, so check it often if you like), some fire building, some worship and early mornings ... This morning I was woken up by a large Tom, kinda cool, but kinda annoying. Last night I saw three deer sleeping in the meadow, that was cool. After the Tom moved on by and I began to wake up a little I cleaned the house and began to pack for the drive home. Oh, but low and behold, I see some cows near the road that start to call out my name. Yes, my name is actually pronounced: Moooaaaahhh. I went for a little walk to see them, they were shy and had three new calf's with them. The largest of the cows walked hesitantly up to my hand, outstretched over the electric fence, and licked me with her big black tongue. She took a step back in surprise and stomped. At the stomp the rest of the cows, who were curious, did a little shutter and stood still. She then shook her big head as if to say: noooo. About that moment two cars pulled up asking if I was getting the calf's back in the fence. "Just saying hi" I said. The farmer was relieved and told me that he's been checking on the new ones just in case one of them got out. And Scene...
(Cheesy musical score fades in as Patrick walks from the cows, waving happily at the farmer, who is equally waving happily back ... birds chirping ... happy sun ... aaahhhhhhh ...)

I drove north to Phillips, where I had breakfast at the freight house restaurant and had awful coffee but great hash browns, eggs, homemade cinnamon raisin bread and steak. I also heard some great one liners and some really interesting conversation, like so:

"I would imagine people throw a lot of things at you bill." (In response to a story about a bar fight that cost him a tooth)
"Sue super glued my dick to my leg once. What? It's true, yeah they had to cut it loose." (...pranks a spouse can play on each other)
"Ya-know what the best part of you is? Seeing you walk out that front door." (Old man to a young woman...)

wow...

I started thinking that if I wanted to I could start roasting here and I'd make a killing, I mean how many of these hoo-ha's have had good coffee? Probably not many if they're used to this brown cigarette water. I was so desperate for a signal that I reverted back to my ghetto comcast days when I would drive slowly through neighborhoods scanning the open wifi networks. I drove past the Library first to see if I could score some good library signal, but no. What's next? The somewhat good homes I saw as I drove past, those were all locked (though I know some codes, those didn't work). Ok, down main street, and YES!! I find one! Thanks Davette! I would think that a CPA's office would have a little more secure network but whatever.

The drive back home was uneventful, but like always, I end up at Kopplin's. So here I am writing this blog from a table at Kopplin's coffee. Where would the world be without it's coffee shops, and Milstead ... and reading ... ma ter iaal ...

Thank Goodness it's done!

Wow, the SCAA came and went, the championship happened and all that attended I'm sure had too much to drink, I know I did. I have a couple of pics for you to see but the best bloggers out there can do a better job of summing up the weekend than I can (Liz, the official blog, video feeds, the Ghost, and Meister - who has some sweet tats I wish I could show you!). I will reflect a little about what I learned through all this.

The weekend was crazy in that there was so much happening in the coffee world and in my own as well. I feel like a cotton-headed ninny-muggins. Sunday was my one month with Angela and we had a great time spending it in Afton with Captain Mudslinger. Because I was going crazy with the partying, forgetting house things, spending time with Angela and God, learning about things technical and making friends with Synesso; I started something that I tend to do about every two to three years - I reevaluate what matters most to me and how my actions in life right now are showing that or not and what I'm doing to remedy and/or continue those things. It's not a real easy process but I think I make it pretty simple. I first outline the things in my life that matter to me, and then the things that take my time currently. How do they match? Then I just journal and pray about each bullet that I wrote down, and I end up making a massive list of stuff.
Here is the list right now, it's pretty personal but I wanted to share it so that maybe you can be encouraged in whatever you're doing.

SCAA Day 1 eve

The beginning of the SCAA has started and I have continued to "help" Milstead, and survive the visitors that come to the shop. I have a strange sense of nervousness, not because they'll judge me (surprisingly) but because they're doing the same things I'm doing, writing about it, making it their life, and some (not all) are better than me. I'm not the best and I don't claim to be, but I know that Kopplin's is the best at what we do in the cities here.

and I am the hottest.

right next to Angela, and milstead.

but I'm not gay. Anyway, the whole hubbub with coffee superstars and oral fixation and whatnot, is so weird to me, but in a way it's so cool. It seriously feels like the circus is in town, and not really the good kind, but you can't help but go and watch the human lizard, or the bearded woman. Dude, I want to get more involved in this whole thing, but there's lots of cliches, and there're lots of egos, and there's lots of knowledge that no one's going to teach you. I guess this is where I go it alone, or with milstead ... milstead and Angela, and we ride, on one horse, cause I can't afford much. The superstars that we read about in barista mag, coffeed, jimseven and whatnot are ones that have their own shops or are traveling the world making a difference in people's lives - I guess I'm thinking of farmers, and rogue baristas looking for a master, or are willing to be the master themselves (aka - Billy Wilson, Andrew Kopplin, etc).

I was talking with a rogue the other day, though I know that she is more like a dealer of sorts, and the whole of the coffee industry is wanting to be something more; yet money, life and business get in the way, or just happens - either way you look at it. In the end we're all relying on thousands of farmers around the world to do a good job and help us look good. How can we give it back? How can we support the hand that feeds us? Beyond the showmanship and the bling, how can the world benefit from what we do? Making coffee, it's something, not everything, but it's a big business and thousands of people around the world make, drink and are brought together with this beverage.