I don’t remember when the first time I saw this movie was, but I happened to watch it again and I don’t think that there’s anything else you’ll find online that is better worth 10 minutes of your time.
[Via Kottke]
Did you enjoy this? Be awesome and share:
As much as I enjoy drinking coffee, I am not fussy about how I drink it. I appreciate very sweet Turkish coffee as much as I appreciate bitter espresso, and I cannot for the life of me understand why people hate Nescafe as much as I hate Comic Sans.
Aside from the times when I’m given the oh-crap-you’re-so-uncultured look, my lack of pickiness is very convenient. Caffeine? Throw it my way.
I am particularly happy with any sort of Turkish coffee, the rampant form of caffeine in this part of the Arab world. For those unfamiliar, know this: Turkish coffee is to Arabs as espresso is to Italians. It’s the all-day drink, whether early in the morning or instantaneous at one of the many coffee-to-go shops that sell the concoction in a soda-fountain fashion.
Turkish coffee is very fragrant, without the slightest bitter tinge. It also a personal feat, as you have the choice of combining differently roasted beans as well as other additions like cardamom to get your perfect pot.
The roasting grades do not make much sense. Mainly, the three roasts are “blond coffee”, “medium coffee”, and “burnt coffee”. Then it’s done in fractions; you almost never get “medium coffee”, you get 1/2 blond with 1/2 burnt, or 1/4 blond, 1/4 burnt, with 1/2 medium. It doesn’t make sense, I’m telling you, but that’s just the way it works. That’s why Turkish coffee always tastes different. Creepy, yeah?
In my household, it was never a conscious decision to get whatever mixture of roasts we always get. It’s probably something that was passed on in the family. I never asked.
History of that choice aside, my mother had a brilliant idea last weekend. “Let’s get different kinds of mixed brews and actually decide what kind of coffee we like,” she said.
And so we did. The boys (sans Omar, who doesn’t drink coffee), myself, my mother, and a few friends got together this evening with the most popular brews and ran a little tasting skit to determine our taste in Turkish coffee once and for all.
We bought the coffee from Bin Izheiman, which my family has been dealing with for decades. The different roasts were:
We had each mixture in sweet and bitter, and sampled each pot in tiny Arabic coffee cups. Here are the results of the voting:
As you see, the winner is 2/3 blond and 1/3 medium, and the least liked one was 2/3 medium and 1/3 burnt. Here are my own thoughts about each different roast:
What’s your favorite roast? :)
Did you enjoy this? Be awesome and share:
One of the things that I always wonder about is how actors always hang-up without saying “bye” when they’re on the phone.
“Okay, see you tomorrow”. Doj.
“Thanks.” Doj.
Is that how it seriously is?
Did you enjoy this? Be awesome and share:
Google TV and Apple TV have been making the news rounds for months. Are you interested in Web TV? This article will help you pick from the many options.
_
Video killed the radio star, the Internet killed record stores, and choice is killing television. A nice, bloody chain of events, and we are right in the middle of it.
Long gone are the days when mothers would drive their kids to the record store to spend their allowance on a few albums; Napster came in 1999, and teenagers the world over fed their music addiction by downloading the singles they wanted to own. A couple of years later, MP3 players turned ever-growing collections of digital singles into personalized, mobile record stores. They called this the digital music revolution, and it turned the music industry around.
The secret ingredient in that revolution, as well as the TV revolution that is taking place: choice. Teenagers in the late 90′s were not satisfied with spending money on an entire album when they only wanted the single. Today’s generation will not take “Oh, you can only watch that at 9:00 P.M. on Fridays” for an answer, and they do not want to subscribe to OSN’s full package just to watch a few NBA games.
Ladies and gentlemen, brace yourself for Internet TV, led by industry giants Apple, Google, and Amazon as well Internet companies like Netflix, Boxee and Roku. The exciting part is that there are radical differences in how these companies are approaching TV, giving us a wide spectrum of possibilities to experiment with as consumers.
Apple TV — a little box priced at $99 that hooks up to your existing TV equipment — aims to make watching digital content as simple as possible: users can rent movies and shows from Apple or from Netflix Watch Instantly. Downloads cannot be stored on the device itself, but have to be streamed from a PC or Mac running iTunes 10. As is the case usually with Apple devices, Apple TV does not support many file formats, such as DIVX, which is prevalent among Internet downloads.
Google TV, on the other hand, is more open; it does not attempt to simplify the digital TV experience, but to expand it. Regardless of what the name suggests, Google TV is a software bundled with third-party devices. Sony is going to build Google TV-compatible HDTVs and Blu-ray players, Logitech will produce standalone boxes, and Intel will power the devices with their Atom processor. The software aims to allow users to access the web from their TV sets, to watch shows from video sites like YouTube, or simply to surf the Internet using a built in general-purpose browser.
The race is not only on for hardware and interface. Netflix, an online DVD rental service, has 15 million subscribers and is the leader in digital content provision. Plan prices range from around $5 to less than $20, and the “Watch Instantly” feature streams unlimited near-DVD quality movies and shows to a television set, a computer, or a mobile device. Amazon’s “Video On Demand” service is very similar. Hulu, on the other hand, enables users to watch popular TV shows and movies online for free, and we’re not talking small independent movies. They have thousands of videos from Fox, E! Entertainment, MGM, Sony, NBC and others. Their Hulu Plus package enables users to access the same content on a computer, iPad, iPhone, television, and other devices for only $10.
So, a TV fan can choose between buying the “Lost: Complete Collection” DVD package for $148.99 on Amazon, or pay around $10 to be able to watch the series whenever he or she wants on a TV, computer, or mobile device. Amazing, isn’t it? Our television sets are turning into the record store’s video alternative (Hammoudeh, in Jordan’s case).
Yet, all these great services aside, the question at this point for those of us who do not live in the United States is not whether to invest in Google TV, Apple TV, Netflix, or any of the other remaining options. What we need to be asking is do we even need Internet TV just yet?
I know that I don’t. With modest Internet speeds, unreliable connectivity, and capped bandwidth, watching a 10-minute YouTube video on a laptop’s browser is an unpleasant enough experience. Depending on my Internet connection to catch up weekly with an episode of Mad Men is more horrifying than it is exciting.
Internet TV may be the future, and these technologies will all have a hand in changing the TV industry. For now though, I will personally continue to look forward to technological advancements that will not depend on Jordan’s awful service providers, and get my DVDs from Hammoudeh.
Stay tuned, though. The TV revolution will catch on.
Originally published in Venture magazine
More Hyperlink articles:
It’s Time to Learn How to Surf
It’s Real Time
Start a Blog is NOT a Social Media Strategy
Advertising on the Information Highway
Social is the Word
The iPad Will Change the World
Does the Internet Now Speak Arabic?
Google You: Your Professional Brand Online
Left that Copy
Did you enjoy this? Be awesome and share:
Crap. I completely forgot that it’s October. I usually really look forward to the picture post, but this month I was freaking out about what I’m gonna get Gus for his birthday (October 1st, how convenient).
Today, I realized it was October. Already.
World, how was your October?
Mine. Was. Hot.
Proportion of fake surprise is actually not fake.
It’s like MAGIC.
3aha, 3anjad 3aha.
One of my favorite days in September. Spent many hours hopping down Rainbow Street.
Hahaha. I love you 3omzy.
A new member in the family. And it’s a FEMALE. Boys + Roba no more.
Climbing Expedition
What’s cracking?
Tabbalat girls = Love
Pretty photos. The family picture with the man and the 8 kids is my grandfather and my aunts and uncles. This wall is at my cousin’s home.
Tarik is da bomb.
Gus is gonna skin me alive for this one. But it’s hilarious. The bad nose genes are not in the family. He broke it THREE times. He’s not even twenty.
Bonus photo from last October:
Till October’s over, my friends.
Can you really archive time?
2007: On March | On April | On May | On June | On July | On August | On September | On October | On November | On December
2008: On January | On February | On March | On April | On May | On June | On August On September | On October | On November
2009: On July | On August | On September | On October | On November | On December
2010: On January | On February | On March | On April | On May | On June | A Captioned July | An UnCaptioned August
Did you enjoy this? Be awesome and share:
It’s like an itch. Sitting here with the screen glowing against my face and with my fingers poised over the keyboard. I really, really feel like blogging but I don’t really have anything to say. Well, of course I do, but saying something useful and interesting is going to take me a few hours, and these days, I don’t have a few hours.
This weekend, for example, we went to ClimbAt. That was shitloads of fun, and I have a collection of awesome picture that I so will blog, eventually. I wanted to do that yesterday, but it’s just too hot to turn the laptop on at night, and having the laptop blast with the full heat of Photoshop for image editing just isn’t fun. Yalla, winter is almost here.
Other stuff that have also been happening is birthdays. Tons and tons of birthdays.
Three of my three brothers have birthdays in September and, well, the 1st of October.
While gift shopping, it occurred to me how differently similar I am to each of the boys.
Hisham and I love art and design. We are always discussing inspiration, beauty, and creativity.
Omar and I have the nerdy common factor. Put Omar and I in a room with wires and laptops, and we will both be perfectly happy.
Gus and I have the fun stuff in common. We like the same candy, we like similar music, and we really enjoy silly putty.
Okay, so much for having nothing to say.
Did you enjoy this? Be awesome and share:
