Cold Press Coffee

This summer the Dunn Brothers Coffee Shop in St. Paul started serving a drink named Vanilla Iced Nirvana. It is made with cold press coffee. These days I have attempted to order lattes and mochas made with cold press instead of espresso. This is usually met with a weird look from the barista and a lot of confusion when it comes time to ring up the coffee.
I have decided that it would be great to try and learn how to make cold press at home. This weekend I made my first attempt. I did my research, but I found a lot of conflicting recipes. I am working with this cold press recipe at the moment. The basic gist is coarse ground coffee, 4 parts water, 1 part coffee, steep for 3 to 24 hours. My first attempt was a 24 hour steeping (is that even a verb?). I'd love to hear tips from anyone who has attempted this. My goal is to avoid purchasing a Toddy Maker if possible.

Tags: coffee, cold press, caffeine

Game: Grow Island

I believe the original "grow" game by eyemaze is the first flash game that I was ever addicted to playing. They have pulled through with another excellent sequel.

Grow Island

Tags: flash, games

Harry Potter and the Mysterious Ticking Noise

Here is a joyous little video featuring a great beat, puppets, and Harry Potter. In other news, I've just returned from vacation so expect a rash of posts in the near future as I attempt to play catch up.
Here is your Video:

Tags: video

Video: Mitch Hedberg

I love Mitch Hedberg. 'nuff said.

Tags: comedy, video, Mitch Hedberg

I hate my writing

So, I read my photo post and realized that I hate the way I sound when I am writing. I just plain old don't like it. It feels like fingernails on a chalkboard. This isn't a new issue for me. When I traveled with Youth Encounter, we each had to write a journal entry and submit it online to some sort of forum database thing. (Think blog but slow and less pretty.) The first two months all of my journal entries sounded as if I was possessed by some sort of writing demon. The lowest quality of my journal entries was about one of the more memorable experiences I had stateside. The overall unimpressive nature of my writing has been preserved at the archive section of the Youth Encounter pages. I managed to turn a great experience into something trite. I feel as though I am doing this again and I am now issuing a call for help.

Here is what I am reading right now: If you write like you talk, readers will listen
Any critique out there for me? Help me sound human again.

Update: 4/6/2013
Anne Lamott's text Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life has been very helpful.

Tags: writing, blogging

Photo Post: ACTC

ACTC - Andhra Christian Theological College
Originally uploaded by newcoventry

I traveled to India and Nepal in 2002 essentially as a church tourist. I went with a group of friends to visit the churches and learn about differences and similarities to the churches in the United States. The first place we visited in India was Andhra Christian Theological College. This is a seminary located in Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh, India. I ate the hottest meal of my life at this school in the cafeteria.

Throughout all of India people did their best to accommodate our westernized taste buds. ACTC gave us the opportunity to eat dinner with the students in the cafeteria after our evening program. I was excited by our first opportunity to spend time with Indians our age. They appeared to be very excited by watching our reaction to un-westernized curry. My friend Debbie began sweating profusely. My lips became numb and I drank about 32 oz of water. it was almost 6 hours until I could taste anything again. I was glad to see that dorm food could unite two very different cultures.

New Feature: Photo Posts

Erin and I recently went Flickr Pro, so I have begun backing up tons of images from my computer to Flickr. As a result, there are tons of images that have great stories that I would love to tell. I am planning on posting a new Photo each Monday with a story. The first round of images will be from India and Nepal.
Enjoy!

Movie Review: Once

There are a few movies that I have seen that I instantly know I want to own and watch over and over. They are in no particular order: Walk the Line, Garden State, The Motorcycle Diaries, Almost Famous. Once has now been added to this list. The movie is by far one of the most "feel good" movies that I have seen in a long time. The soundtrack was awesome, the acting was sensational, the filming was casual and created great depth.
I strongly recommend this movie to anyone and everyone.
Here is the trailer to whet your proverbial whistle:

Mindless Fun: Acrobots

Every now and then I love a well designed game that has absolutely no point. Acrobots remind me of all the fun of wacky wall walkers without ending up with a hair covered sticky plastic thing after your done playing.

Enjoy Acrobots

Hip Hop Violin

I love a good fiddle player. Every now and then some hip-hop is excellent as well. Thankfully the world of YouTube allows us to connect the two in a visible way.
Enjoy

Game of the Week: City Jumper

You are a small stick figure with a penchant for leaping over tall buildings, bridges, and maybe even catching a seagull or two.
Enjoy City Jumper

Presidential Politics

I am a big fan of Dennis Kucinich. I am also a big fan of the Minneapolis and St. Paul. I think it would be awesome to have him visit. So much so that I created an eventful posting for it. Check it out.

An Unreasonable Man

I've been watching "An Unreasonable Man" over the last few days. It has reminded me how much I can admire the passion and the fervor that Ralph Nader has for pretty much everything I believe and stand for. I have been so frustrated and fed up with our political system for the last few months watching the Democrats sacrifice everything they have stood for.
A few years ago I read "Crashing the Party: Taking on the Corporate Government in an Age of Surrender" and began my love affair with Ralph Nader's ideas. It is so frustrating to hear people blame Nader for the Bush regime.

Friday-ish Fun Link: Bloons Tower Defence

If I can find a game that my wife is fascinated with as much as I am, it is usually a sure sign of an entertaining game. Kill the evil bloons! Kill them with dart throwing monkey towers!

Bloons Tower Defence

Wednesday Video: 1, 2, 3, 4

Here is a great video by one of my new favorite bands: Fiest

Sprint Triathalon

No doubt some of you are readers of my twitter postings and may have wondered, why would Jason roll from St. Paul to Fergus Falls. This journey even held me back from posting a game of the week (like Newsbreaker). I am now a triathlete and about two days ago I would never had considered myself anything that has the root word athelete.

About a month ago, Nate Houge contacted me and informed me that he was hosting a sprint triathalon at his house. Which came in handy because it turns out that I had been training for a sprint triathalon for that past two years (just not every month). It was a great time, and I have lived to tell the story.

We began with a 1/2 mile suede (swim + wade) through Otter Tail Lake, then hopped on our bikes for a theoretical 15 mile bike ride, and then walked 3.2 miles back to the Houge Household for Brats and Blue Ribbons. Some of us accidentally took the scenic route and had more of a 18 mile bike ride, but it was so worth it.

Wednesday Video: Young Folks

This is one of my new favorite videos.
Enjoy

Political Link: Pick Your Candidate

I've always struggled with how to pick and ideal candidate to support. As far as I can tell by the conservative media's standpoint some form of mutant that finds just about every Democrat and Republican a little too conservative. I figure it would be fun to post a few political links every now and again.
Here is a tool that allows you to rank your most stances on different issues and weigh them from meh to key. The only downside to this tool is it only includes the republican and democratic candidates.

Pick your ideal candidate

Which-Way Adventure

I loved Choose your own adventure books when I was a kid. This game helps me relive the memories, if only I could hold my finger in the page before I was eaten by a giant manticore...

Which-Way Adventure

Wednesday Video: Internet Crash

The internet crash of 2007!