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Southland Whiskey Kitchen

This post is guest-posted on Dave Knows Portland as well.

When Dave asks, it is imperative that you do the right thing. Especially when it’s “Hey, Rick, would you like to checkout this new restaurant that serves tasty BBQ and delicious grown-up beverages?” So, I did the right thing: show up to Southland for a preview of their tasty menu.

Southland is a new project by the folks who brought the Casa del Matador to Portland located just a couple doors down at 1422 NW 23rd. Not that other (awesome but totally different) Matador. The first thing you notice is the decor. As you may have noticed at their Matadors with the intricate ironwork, these guys are chronically attentive to detail, with a simple but elegant wood decor and some awesome light fixtures that I won’t endeavor to describe, as my effort will fall short so you should probably go check them out (but props to Hippo Hardware for providing the moody bulbs). The space has a large open air section facing NW 23rd, openings that were not there when it was the Clear Creek Distillery.

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The menu is heavily southern without many concessions to vegetarians, most of which live in the sides and salads. Vegans need not apply, unless you’re just looking to quench your thirst. Everything I ate was pleasing. There were two standout items: the collard greens, and the spicy shrimp with grits. The biscuit was a thing of beauty, and went nicely slathered with honey butter and brisket.

Eric (my date) and I disagreed on the fried chicken. There was consensus that the meat (we both had thigh) was juicy and tender, but butted heads on the fry. It comes down to a matter of preference, I like mine a bit crispier and spiced, and Eric likes it the wrong way. Don’t tell anyone but the fried chicken may become available in ‘n waffles format with the advent of a brunch menu.

They were nice enough to bring us key lime pie for dessert but I was so stuffed on main course items I only shoveled a couple quick bites into my mouth on my way to tour the kitchen. Please remember folks, we’re professionals, excelling at planning, pacing, and execution.

Okay. Now on to the bar. The wonderful, wonderful bar. The bar is wide. With whiskey. The only place in town I can think of with a comparable list is the Brooklyn Park Pub. Southland specializes in American bourbons, ryes, and whiskeys. A rough count or their list shows about 120 American selections. They appear to be well curated as well, a trait that reaches into the Canadian, Irish, and Scotch varieties as well.

We were served a variety of hard and soft mixed drinks throughout the evening. I was presented a Mint Julep just for walking in YMMV. The julep was great. I was parched from the long drive to NW 23rd from the office, and the crushed ice worked wonders with the classic refresher. It had a sweetness, but over the top for me, unlike the Southern Punch. My date Eric loved them both, but I tend to shy away from beverages with “punch” in the description. For the kiddies and DDs (can’t think of anyone else) they have their scratch lemonade. They make it from lemon juice and sugar. Again, super-sweet, but I think that’s how it’s done in the South.

Meal service closed with an Old Fashioned. Ah, back to my kind of drink. This was the most avante-garde of the bunch, with a big ice cube and a suspended cherry (next to the ice, not in it). The effect was of a somewhat deconstructed Old Fashioned, which you could drink from different sides of the ice for slightly different effects.

Happily, we got to checkout the kitchen, which was pretty classy with its mesquite grill and big ‘ole black smoker. It smelled wonderful in the back with the local apple wood smoking the meats, but I can see why they do their best to vent out and up, since some customers may object to a smoky meaty sauna.

I’m expecting Southland to pack a pretty lively happy hour, which runs daily 3:30-6pm.

They’re opening Thursday 10/11 at 11am.

 

Posted in Adventures in Reality, The Nectar.

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By rick – 11 Oct 12

MS Flight: they still don’t get it

Well, I have to say, I’m a bit sad.  I have really enjoyed MS Flight.  It seemed to be targeted at the casual Flight Simmer.  I suppose that would be me.  I like FSX as well, but it’s a bit clunky, and very full-featured.  When I feel like some defined missions or lightweight adventures, MS Flight is great.  The graphics and performance are nice on my system.

I just read today that they’ve cancelled the program, which is too bad.  I do hope for the best for the team behind MS Flight.

Carbon Cub above Alaska

Southern Alaska in my Carbon Cub over  beautiful scenery, but I can’t get into the cockpit!

The Pricing Model

I really appreciated the idea behind the Flight pricing model, as variant on the freemium DLC model.  Basically, you could download and play the game for free with a limited amount of scenery and planes.  The limited scenery consisted of one Hawaiian Island and a couple planes.  You could then purchase the rest of Hawaii, or a few additional planes.  Or they offered the bundle for 25 or 30 dollars.  At the same time, it was possible to purchase the bundle through Steam for $15, which I promptly did.

They later offered an Alaska pack as well, along with one additional plane.

The Content

Overall, the content is beautiful.  The water is beautifully rendered, shadows and skylines are great, and the towering cliffs look fantastic.  Scenery feels unique, not tiled.

The Gameplay

Well, it appears that the hardcore simmers aren’t too pleased with the gameplay.  They miss being able to fly anywhere.  There’s a shortage of planes, and no big ones, gliders, or helis.  There’s a limited amount of customization available.  And honestly, I think the hardcore simmers prefer a more spartan UI.

I’d like to be able to build a flight plan and use it.

The missions are fun and challenging, and I enjoy the occasional aerocache hunt.

So what’s the problem?

After so much experience with their Flight Simulator series, and success, why would MS discount the industry that they helped to create?  There are a ton of companies build around custom scenery, planes, add-ons, hardware, consoles, and chassis.  MS Flight doesn’t support any of them.  MS decided to go it alone.  Would the iPhone have been successful if Apple had squashed 3rd party apps?  It would still just be a phone that browses.  How could MS have missed this opportunity?  For relatively little work, they could have enabled 3rd party developers to release scenery, planes, missions, and more, through their proprietary “app store”, all the while, raking in the easy money.

Instead of raking in easy money, they chose to keep it closed and go it alone.  Well, it worked well for them in the 90s, why not now?

It’s tricky though

In the end, MS did bite of a pretty complex problem.  They attempted to take niche product and grow the market.  Unfortunately, they appear to have alienated their existing customer base by not offering something that appealed to them and snubbing their entire commercial advocate community.  At the same time, they offered a product to the commodity gaming market that isn’t exactly “fun”.  Flight simulators aren’t exactly a “fun” game, which is probably why they’re niche in the first place.  Rather than fun, they deliver an experience.  It’s occasionally fun, but that’s not what keeps me coming back.  It’s challenging and educational.  It puts me in places to see places around me from a new perspective.  It’s flying, and it’s not for everyone.

So what could they do better?

Rock, Paper, Shotgun has some good suggestions as to what could have saved MS Flight.  Among them are additional planes (such as gliders and helicopters).  While I’m pretty happy with Hawaii and Alaska for flying around in, I probably won’t be forever.  I enjoy using  Orbx’s Pacific Northwest scenery to explore the areas I most often go.  Sadly, this will probably never be an option for MS Flight.

The Steam thing was really confusing for me.  I purchased the DLC, then they made me install Steam and run Flight through there, and I don’t know why or what it meant.  Why not just offer the discount themselves instead of some weird bait-and-switch maneuver.  Oh, well.

Community.  I’ve flown a bit with others in MS Flight.  It was pretty fun.  Tools to help people be in a community would be handy.

Tools for the newb.  Flight simming is much more fun if you aren’t just flying.  Provide tools and guidance for building flight plans, and for connecting with experienced flyers.

The comments on this thread from passionate flight simmers are quite telling as well:

“If only MS realised from the start that it was us FREEWARE developers that really made the FS franchise it is today….. ” – 7107delicious

“Microsoft did without a doubt take their eye off the ball. We’ve been loyal to them for many years; this last go round we were treated like the unseen red-headed step children of the software world.” – Aaron aka Stretch

Conclusion

MS Flight is a great product.  The experience is quality, the visuals are solid.  But MS managed to not learn from their own experience, and from the successes of others.  I guess it’s just too bad that MS keeps making these silly mistakes over and over.  They continually release a solid product that is just subtly yet significantly flawed.

But MS continues to underestimate the power of community, and how communities react.  They seem to live in this world where they believe one action has no effect on another.  (their wooing of the OSS community is another wonderful tale I witnessed).  If you have a bunch of people who support you, at least let them think that you’re supporting them back.

Posted in Mouthinkin, Technoblah.

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By rick – 04 Sep 12

Simplify

I’m embarking on a new mission with my family to simplify our lives and get out of debt. We’ve somehow managed to drive our credit card debt well into the 5 figures, and that’s not sitting too well.  We are working on becoming aggressive towards our debt.  Here are the initial steps we’ve taken to eliminate this burden.

  • Stop using credit cards
  • Move cc balances to 0% interest account
  • Kill debt with savings
  • Consolidate subscriptions
  • Question purchases
Debt in the cross hairs

This is where we’re at after an initial paydown, and the consolidation in progress.

 

Stop using credit cards

This has been a huge shift.  Enticed by my REI dividends, I’ve been using my REI card for years.  At first I had the intention of paying monthly, but then a large expense would hit, and it would carry.  The balance would cascade and build and then everything else was a drop in the pan.  Credit card is out of the wallet now.

I used my credit card to pay my subscriptions and have online for the Apple store, Amazon, Playstation Network, Google, and others.  It’s how I paid my gym membership, Netflix, and just about everything else.  Everything is being moved to our account at our credit union.  Almost everything is there now, but there are still a few lingering.

I use Mint to see what’s still hitting the credit card, then seek and destroy.

Move cc balances to 0% interest account

Since I’m not going to be able to annihilate my credit card debt in one fiscal quarter, I decided to take advantage of some 0% balance transfer offers.  For 3% of the total balance, I’d be off the hook on interest for a year.  3% is $300 for every $10,000 in debt you’re carrying.  The credit cards run around 12% give or take, so that same $10,000 costs about $100 per month.  So I transferred everything I wasn’t confident that I could pay down in 3-4 months.

Kill debt with savings

This one might be a bit controversial, but the interest on a savings account is much lower then the interest on a credit card.  So, we’re paying down the debt with savings.  I guess if we’re struck with an emergency we end up going back to the credit card, or hitting a retirement account.  But I think it’s key to eliminate this debt, so the snake will be eating its tail for the next year.

Consolidate subscriptions

We’re investigating ways to consolidate our online subscriptions.  For example, we both splurged on spotify accounts.  We now share one account, saving $10/mo. We also share a kindle account.   Now I need to figure out how to share our google account.

Question purchases

Still working this one out, but we’re taking a stronger look at our discretionary expenses.  No more “hey, this magazine looks like fun” types of expenses.  So far I’ve managed to cut this fairly dramatically, but still looking at drawing the actual numbers out of it.

Next steps

Well, I’d like to let the waters settle from these initial actions and make sure that we’re taking advantage of our new patterns.  But, my hope is to simplify our lives, and the space we live in.  Take an aggressive stance towards paying down the debt over the next year, and reign in expenses as a lifestyle.

Posted in Mouthinkin, Simplify.

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By rick – 26 Aug 12

Loving the Max

was just thinking about my commute since I’ve been riding regularly, and how much I enjoy my morning time on Portland’s light rail, the Max.

It’s really the only time of the day that I can count on to be my own time. I can read, write, get some work done, chat with strangers, or just stare blankly.

When I work, it’s without fear of interrupts, so that 30 minutes can be more productive than a whole day in the office. as far as production goes.

All this while I’m actually making progress towards a goal, which is getting to work.

And then when I ride home over the west hills, that beer tastes even better.

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Posted in Mouthinkin, The Oregon Trail.

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By rick – 04 Jul 12

Lompoc and their wonderful holiday fun

From Lompoc Holiday Beer Event 2011

I’ve always enjoyed Lompoc beers.  Many sunny afternoons have been misspent sitting on the porch at New Old Lompoc, and I’ve had quite a few pleasant cool-downs from soccer and riding at Hedge House and the brilliantly named 5th Quadrant.  Tuesday the good people of Lompoc held a tasting event for their holiday beers, and it did not disappoint.

Eric and I arrived early and snagged seats at the bar.  From there I was able to snag good glassware and chat up the bartenders (who also happened to be brewers, owners, or Dave).  And it was pole position for grabbing the freshly poured samples.  Which were ample.

Did I mention they only released 10 different holiday beers this year?  Ranging from the mellow Blitzen to the potent C-sons Greetings, from Jolly Bock to Barrel Aged Old Tavern Rat (thanks Don!), and a few outliers like the Brewdolph and Cherry Christman.  And to make Mr. Sandler happy, the 8 Malty Nights was offered for the Chanukah consumers.

Blitzen - very light for an xmas ale, some nice holiday infusions of cinnamon, clove, lemon, and ginger.  Cinnamon aromatics.  Really not much more than a wheaty pale with a light citrus  ginger, but for my taste it’ll sit nicely between heavier holiday ales.

Zach wanted to have a lighter holiday beer so he concocted fool’s golden w/ spices.  Infused by xferring through corny this year.

Nose: light clove and citrus.  A session holiday ale.  The food really brings it out.

 

Cherry Christmas 

messing around with wine barrels, bourbon barrel for the last several years.

base: golden, fermented in steel w/ sour cherries + sour willie.  released 11/29.  This will be the holiday ale beer.  light, fruity, maybe a little sour.

Brewdolph

Brian’s favorite.  belgian red, balanced, Ardennes yeast.  spicy, clove flavor.  Heavy clove nose. No adjuncts, amazing amount of clove.  Slightly sharp finish.  Lets you know you’re alive.

Holiday Cheer

Milder holiday ale with big body and full spice, based on the vanilla porter.  Sits on vanilla beans.  Use whole beans for real flavor.

Jolly Bock

holiday lager.  huge 7.3% malty.  caramel, a bit sweet, super drinkable 7.3 beer.

I really enjoyed this.  It had that nice crispness of a lager, and was really not overpowering despite the 7.3%.  I don’t know what the final gravity was but it finished nice and clean.

C-sons Greetings

Based on C-note, C-sons greetings basically upped the ante in every way.  100 IBUs.  Every 7 hops in the kettle, and every 7 in the fermenter for a dry hop in the C-sons.

Hearing Jerry talk about the original C-note was pretty fun.  It was too strong back in the day.  ”If I can’t have 3 beers without lunch, it’s too much for your clienteele”  Based on c-note.   The name is based on 7 C-hops like centennial, cascade, and chinook used to make C-note (what there were of C-names  at the time).

Bourbon Barrel Aged C-sons Greetings

nose gives the bourbon barrel.  This was a fine beer, but I didn’t find the barrel did a whole lot to the flavor, since it tempered the hops quite a bit.

Old Tavern Rat

named after Don Younger, but “he would F***ing hate this beer”.  cellared for a year prior to release.  collaboration of Brian and Zach.   English style barley wine, not overhopped.  Sweet, but nicely balanced.

Bourbon Barrel Aged Old Tavern Rat 

great beer.  sweetcake barley wine, super nice bourbon vanilla, creamy body, lingers just enough to know it cares.  I’m not typically a fan of barley wines, but I took three bottles of this home with me.

8 malty nights

chocolate rye porter. This one was still pretty green, having just been pulled out of the fermenter to offer us all a taste and a preview.  That’s the kind of event this was…sorta, hey, check out the fun stuff we’re working on now!  Which is awesome.

Overall, it was a really nice evening.  Jerry, Dave, and the brewers shared tons of stories and secrets.  Everyone laughed a bunch.  Good times were had, along with plenty of beer.

Posted in The Nectar.

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By rick – 17 Nov 11

Urbandig

My miha at Miho Izakaya

Roxy is totally into noodles, and so am I!

I’ve recently started contributing to a nifty new iPhone app called urbandig.  It is the app that I wanted when I was in NYC earlier this year.  It’s the app that I want when I visit Memphis and Denver later this year.  Basically, they’ve gone out and found people who know the city, or parts of it, really well, and gotten them to created nice little curated morsels of experience.  Portland’s urban dig experience has just been release, and in it you can enjoy my delicious noodle crawl, in which I explore some of Portland’s more exciting Ramen joints.

In addition to my fantastic list there are some on where to get a great microbrew, tasty pork, a cuppa joe, and much much more in our fun little town.

So far they feature NYC, LA, PDX, San Francisco, and Vancover, BC.  Austin, Chicago, and DC are in the works.  So I guess I’ll need to look elsewhere for my short term travels.

Head over to their site, or hit up your favorite app store to get it for your iPhone.

Posted in Adventures in Reality, Cook dude cook, Technoblah.

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By rick – 18 Oct 11

Working to drop a car

I’ve been riding the bike a lot lately, and it’s been great. It’s not just good exercise to ride for my commute, it’s also a far better way to relax than driving to and from work. I’ve been doing it so much lately (driven to work once since early August) that I’m kicking around selling one of the cars. We’re currently a 2-adult 1-baby 2-car household. I’ve registered for ZipCar account, though I’ve yet to use it. Happily there is a Zip Car parked two blocks from my house and another less than 1/2-mile from my office.

From Portland 2011

I’m growing more and more excited about dropping the Corolla, but am concerned about my resolve through the rainy season. Even worse than the rain, or perhaps compounding it are the wind and the dark. The wind make the rain wetter and the cold colder, and the dark just makes riding more dangerous. I suppose I should just suck it up and get on my bike. Every day.

Posted in Adventures in Reality, Sports is fun!.

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By rick – 17 Sep 11

Organic City Sounds on Beer

Nice little audio blog piece on beer in Portland, OR. Go ahead and take a listen. It covers the whole gamut from enjoying to making in our little beer mecca.

Posted in The Nectar, The Oregon Trail.

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By rick – 11 Sep 11

Dude learns portions

I struggle with portion size. I’ve known for a long time that my “stop eating mechanism” does not work. I love food, I love making food, and I love eating it. That makes for a dangerous combination when you’re trying to lose weight.

pancakes
mmm...pancakes

For one thing, the food that I cook doesn’t break down into easily identified portions. So, I’ve always just eaten too much.

The discovery that is helping me is that many premade foods are made in discrete portions, whether large or small. While I don’t plan to eat manufactured forever, it is really helping me gain an understanding of what a portion of a food means.

A frozen chicken burrito is ten points. That’s quite a few points for what amounts to a large snack or light meal, so the delicious chicken burrito will remain a guilty pleasure.

A Hebrew National hot dog with a slice of American cheese on a Flatout wrap with spinach and mustard is 9 points. Makes for a decent lunch, especially if I throw in a banana or carrot sticks.

A bagel with cream cheese is over 10 points. Holy cow. That makes a bagel portion like 1/2 bagel. So I have to ask myself: is the bagel really worth it? Well, I love bagels, so I’ll save them for a weekend when I have a few points banked.

And then there’s beer. A single beer is 5+ points. I suspect that microbrews are more, and they’re sold in 16oz pints. So, a pint of a good IPA is probably 7 or more. They go down easy, and so do the points. Wine is a bit under 4 points. So, I’m exploring red wines a bit more lately. Scotch is in the 3-4 point range as well.

So, I’m figuring out the give and take of portions. The tricky part is balancing all of these pieces, so I’m trying to figure it out. But the practice I’m getting from prepackaged food is helping me a lot.

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By rick – 02 Aug 11

How to poach an egg

Poaching an egg is really easy if you just know a few tricks to make it work. Since I’ve been doing WW I’ve been eating a lot more poached eggs since there’s no frying, but you still get a lot of the benefits: filling, low points, healthy, cheap, and goes well with lots of things.

Set some water to boil in a medium saucepan. The egg wants a little depth. Before the water starts boiling, right when bubbles start to form, turn the heat down to medium or medium-high. It should be just on the verge of bubbling, maybe a few gentle streamers. If the bubbles are too violent, they’ll break the egg apart and you’ll end up with a mess.

Add a splash of white vinegar to the water, and some salt. I think I got the white vinegar trick from Jamie Oliver, and something about it helps the egg stay together better.

Crack your egg on a flat surface, like a plate, and gently open it into a small bowl, something glass, ceramic, or metal that will allow easy pouring of the egg. If you break the yolk, toss the egg or do something else with it, because your poached egg won’t be very good. It’s okay, just grab another egg.

With a slotted spoon, swirl the water so you get a bit of a funnel to form in the middle. Another Jamie Oliver trick. I think this helps the eggs settle into one place.  Since the egg floats in water, the centripetal force has the opposite effect that you’d expect.

Holding the bowl as close to the water as possible, gently pour the egg into the middle of the funnel you formed previously, and just let it sit there for a bit.

I find that about 4 minutes is perfect for me. It gives a yolk that is slightly jellified but still runny.

I like to have my poached egg on a whole wheat english muffin with raw spinach and some sriracha sauce. Enjoy!

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By rick – 26 Jul 11

Heads up! North American Organic Brewers Festival

Just a reminder that the NAOBF is happening this weekend, starts at noon Fri-Sunday at Overlook Park.  This is my favorite brewfest of the year.  It doesn’t get crazy crowded, there are tons of fun beers to try, and it’s always an all-around good time.  I’m helping Dave Knows with his story about it this year, so double-stoked.  See you there.

Posted in Know your current events, The Nectar, The Oregon Trail.

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By rick – 21 Jun 11

Blue Point Toxic Sludge Black IPA

My brother and his sweet gf showed up at my place today.  Wisely, they came bearing gifts.  Wiser, they came in the form of tasty and interesting beer.  His lady is from Long Island, NY, home of Blue Point Brewing Company.  And a town called Blue Point.  Anyways, I’m quite impressed with the first beer I’ve tasted from them.

Personally, I prefer calling it Cascadian Dark.  But we know what they’re talking about.  This tasty treat out of Long Island has a chocolate malt aroma and a full body.  A deep caramel brown color, the appealingly-named Toxic Sludge carries a nice head.  The dark roasted malts are clean, but the roast lingers with a hint of coffee until my next taste.  There’s a nice balance of bitterness, I wouldn’t mind a bit more overt hoppiness, but really this is a delicious blend of bitter and sweet, perhaps lacking just a bit of crispness for the sweet body.  But sacrifices must be made.

Blue Point Toxic Sludge

Toxic Sludge in a glass

Impressively, Blue Point is donating a significant amount of the proceeds to a bird rescue for a wildlife response rescue.  Which is awesome.  And in doing so, they’re producing a delicious Cascadian Dark for people like me to enjoy.  Seeing as I’ll be on Long Island this summer, I have something to look forward to.

A nice selection

This is the second New York non-city brewery to impress me.  Southern Tier has some amazing brews, and I’m looking forward to trying more from Blue Point.

Thanks Joanne and bro (and family of Joanne).  cheers.

rick

Posted in The Nectar.

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By rick – 28 Dec 10

The holding pattern

Well, today was the due date. I haven’t talked about it much, but N and I are expecting a little girl here anytime. She’s been a trooper, we went out to a Christmas party last night, walked to NePo42 for a tasty breakfast.  She got gorgeous fluffy pancakes with apple (real apples hunks…bigger than chunks) and I got the biscuits and gravy and a bloody mary.  Augie got pet but no food.

The baby holding pattern is a weird stage in life.  I mean, it could happen at any time.  But it might not happen for days or even weeks.  In the meantime, you go about your business, but as Michael Lewis suggests in Home Game, it’s a good goal for the father to not show up to the birth drunk.  So, I’m trying to limit it to a friendly buzz.

So we’re trying get things together around the house, I’ve been playing a lot of video games, and we’re just hanging out.  Not a bad way to go, I suppose.

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By rick – 12 Dec 10

New toy review: Flip Mino HD

I recently received my new Flip camera.  I ordered online and got the custom design.  Sorta half-assed that, but that’s okay.  The first thing I noticed about it after picking it up is that it is lighter than I’d expect.  As in it feels somewhat plastic.  I immediately plugged it into my computer to charge it and play with it.  The charge happened pretty quickly, so the playing did as well.

The second thing you notice about the Mino HD is that it doesn’t have a lot of buttons.  There’s a big red one in the middle.  Must be important.  There’s right and left arrows, a plus and minus, a trash can, and a play button, none of which are tactile.  On the right is a flush button for power, and on the left is a slider that unlocks the USB.  This Flip has a place for an (mini) HDMI cable (that I don’t have) and tripod mount on the bottom.

Cleverly, the unit is entirely self-contained, with the exception of the soft sack that contains it.  Even the software comes onboard and is compatible with Mac and PC.  The movies play in Linux with mplayer, but then I have to forgo editing power, so I’ll overtax my poor old mac laptop.

The image stabilization was a key factor in my selection of this model.  I’m not looking to take Blair Witch baby movies (baby = reason I got this thing).  And I’m happy with the stabilization. It does a pretty good job and making my non-surgeon hands feel steady.

I am not happy with the non-tactile buttons.  Their placement is awkward for me, in that I hit them when I don’t want to and can’t hit them when I do.  Running the entire set down each side with a selector for right-or-left-handed operation might be an interesting way to handle it.

The screen is fine, it shows you what you’re filming, and since you can’t control anything but zoom and what you’re pointing at from where, it doesn’t matter except for framing and sanity check.  We’re not filming the next great Galifinakis film here, it’s a Flip so I can film my daughter (upcoming) and dog and send them to family and a few friends who care.

I’ve had the Flip crash on a few occasions.  Lockup, lockdown, both ways to Sunday.  One time I had to jam a paper clip into the tri hole.  That let it do a hard reset, which didn’t appear to do anything more than a plain reset (data was still there) except it worked again.  It’s a simple device and I haven’t used it that much, so it’s feeling fairly unstable so far.

The software is fine.  It seems like it might have the beginnings of some social characteristics, but I think it’ll be a pretty nice way to send stuff to the aforementioned family and friends.

Overall, I’m going to give the Flip Mino HD a C+/B-.  In some ways it’s great, but in too many ways it’s just not awesome enough.

Posted in Mouthinkin, Technoblah.

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By rick – 06 Dec 10

New toy review: Amazon Kindle 3

I’m a book lover. By nature. I find flipping pages, browsing aisles, and even falling asleep on a book, to be comforting. But I’ve been eyeballing the Kindle (and the Nook and the eReader) since it came out. With the price dropping to under $150 (sans 3g), it was suddenly accessible. I started to think about it, but never quite pulled the trigger. Which was fortunate, as the lady got me one for my birthday. I was stoked and surprised.

It was smaller than I expected, and light. But it felt nice. I was enamored with the Kindle from the beginning. In some ways, the Kindle (and its ilk, perhaps) is the most amazing advance to happen to readers since Twilight. I mean the printing press. It holds a lot of books in a tiny package.

For one thing, the Kindle is awesome for travel. Instead of 4 pounds of books, I can load a few into the Kindle, along with some magazine subscriptions. And it still weighs like 5 ounces.

The screen is nice to read on. e-Ink is pretty cool…it’s a lot like reading a book. The batteries last forever. Really, the reading experience is fairly booklike.

It’s possible to jailbreak the Kindle. While Amazon is has released the KDK, it’s only available to established development firms. And one dude created KIF, Kindle Interactive Fiction, which lets people play Zork, Enchanter, and other Infocom games, in addition to tons from the IF Archive. I’m very tempted…

Unfortunately, the Kindle keyboard is barely adequate. The letters were rubbing off the within a day of ownership. The buttons have strange tactile response. I’m not too fond of the design either, having the D-pad between buttons above and below.

I’m not thrilled about the location of the paging buttons either. I’d like something on the back, maybe a movable grip of sorts. It’d be a nice accessory. I’d also like the forward/back to be be programmable…I’d like symmetry between the two, as there are books where I go forward and back a fair amount.

The Kindle store is great. IF you know exactly what you want. Otherwise it is terrible. It’s miserable to browse. I downloaded a few of the classics for free, now it thinks I don’t read anything written after 1907. I do have an Amazon account it could pull from. But it doesn’t appear to.

One of the things that I love about books is bookstores. Browsing them, recommendations, groupings, the smell, the lighting, the surprises. So far, I haven’t had any of those from the Kindle store. And that’s a huge disappointment.

Airplanes don’t understand the Kindle yet. They made me turn it off. The Kindle works the same off as on. It draws power when you press the buttons. Otherwise, it’s about like a watch. So you’re stuck reading SkyMall for the first and last 10-20 minutes of your flight.

I can’t share with the Kindle very well. Apparently, I can share, but only for like two weeks, and only so many times. I don’t like limitations like that. I like to send my books into the wild, especially the ones that I like. We have book exchanges, and this doesn’t make that easy.

I feel like a traitor when I walk into an independent bookstore. I love Powell’s and I love the other Indy booksellers and I will continue to support them.

But I was at a conference a couple weeks ago and a speaker (@eugenelee of Socialtext) called out a good book that I’d read, so when he recommended one that I hadn’t read, I purchased it in a minute from the Kindle store in the conference.

I’ve enjoyed the highlighting and notes features. There’s a very slight social nature to it, in that you can see what others have highlighted. I’d like to see this expanded. Maybe connect with people with similar interests, build reading and discussion groups, whatever. There’s a lot of power available there.

So, I’ve been pretty rough on the Kindle here. But really, I love it. Overall, I’m giving it a B. There’s plenty of room for improvement. But I like it, it’s a pleasing device, and I will continue to use it. It is nice to read on, and feels a lot like reading a book. I do like having a dedicated device for reading.

Posted in Technoblah.

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By rick – 26 Nov 10

Instant Replay in Soccer

After the US’s disappointing (yet thrilling) tie against Slovenia, you can be sure that there will be a clamor for instant replay in soccer. On the surface, it seems like a great idea. Matches will end with the true winner victorious, honor will be restored to the game.

This is a terrible idea. There is a purity about soccer. 23 men on the pitch, and only a few rules on how to play the game. All you need is a ball and some friends to play.

It’s true, there are a lot of bad calls. Sometimes the referee is biased, sometimes, he’s bad, and sometimes he gets emotional. But bad calls are a part of the game. You can’t interrupt the fluidity to stick your face into a replay booth every time someone is unhappy with a call. Because the review would overturn the call too often.

In a soccer game there are 22 players on the pitch, and they are subject to the rule of one man: the referee. If the referee decides that the game should last for 112 minutes and kicking with your left foot is a foul, that’s how the game will be played. People may not be happy with it, and the ref will likely not be invited back, but that is the game that was played.

Posted in Mouthinkin, Sports is fun!.

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By rick – 19 Jun 10

GQ’s best brews

Lisa the beer goddess has called my attention to an article in which GQ calls out the 50 best beers. These things are such a matter of opinion and experience it doesn’t make sense to argue much, but I think they hit a lot of good ones.

I’ve previously mentioned the Duchesse as a favorite. I’m also a fan of Southern Tier who didn’t make the list. Que sera.

Posted in The Nectar.

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By rick – 23 Apr 10

SxSWi was a good time

and I learned a lot. And met some nice people.

There were a lot of major themes. I was happy to see the internet future includes thoughts on how all this stuff will work inside business too. As a corporate lacky, this is valuable stuff for me, and for a long time it has seemed neglected. The main focus here was around corporate culture and the roles of communities and community managers. Interesting conversations with Saul Colt and Mallory Messina. A particular surprise was the huge value I got from a brief chat with Capt. Broshear or the USAF. Challenging concepts to translate from military to business, especially in regards to openness!

Search is one of my favorite topics, and I saw a few talks on the subject. Peter Morley, author of Ambient Findability, spoke on Search Patterns. Pretty interesting stuff.

And then there is the whole where am I where are you do I care wtf do I do with that? set of presentations. Geolocation is huge and going to get much huger. Great stuff from Adam Duvander who happens to be geolocated right down the street from me, as well as Skyhook and SimpleGeo. Truly, these people get it. It was great to see, hear, and spin on this stuff.

It was great to connect with the local Portland crew. There are some good folks out there. I liked the Macallan samples and the other free stuff too!

Thanks Texas!

Posted in Adventures in Reality.

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By rick – 19 Mar 10

SxSW – what’s a beerdrinker to do?

N and I are heading down to Austin shortly to catch the SxSW interactive conference and spend some time with her sister who moved there from somewhere I didn’t want to visit about 6 months ago. So I think I can find my way around a conference. But what about the city? Any tips…beer, BBQ, texmex, or whatnot. Cheers.

PS. Just saw the Tron Legacy preview and it looks pretty awesome.

Posted in Adventures in Reality, Technoblah.

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By rick – 09 Mar 10

How not to get shot by the police

okay, police violence sucks. It’s a drag that unarmed people get shot. Lately, I’ve been putting together some tips I’ve picked from my years of experience not getting shot at by the police in an effort to help people avoid the short barrel of the law.

First, you can take a preemptive strike and keep the police away in general. Try to avoid situations in which housemates and loved ones feel the need to call the police in regards to you. Sometimes it’s easiest to just go to bed and apologize in the morning.

Now, it might happen that you can’t avoid the police. Like you were speeding or made a bad lane change. In that case, it’s easy to avoid getting shot at. Stay in the car. In the seat that you have been in the whole time. Keep your hands on the steering wheel. Listen to the instructions. They’ve been trained to make them simple. Things like “step out of the car” and “don’t reach for the glovebox” are good ones to act on. Slowly (we will return to this).

A really good way that I’ve learned to not get shot is to not hold a gun. You may even be able to make it through life (the long version) without owning a gun. They’re rentable, and in many places they are not actually requisite for safety. However, I appreciate your preparedness for survival after the fall. I think that it is completely possible to not get shot by the police and still own a gun. All you need to do is follow one simple rule: only get the gun out if you intend to use it. Mardi Gras parties and community theater do not count as legitimate uses.

Keep in mind that once you’ve been tagged as “having a gun” you’re going to have a tough time shaking that rep. So leave it in the shoebox away from the kids. Guns are scary to a lot of people when they pop-up in unusual situations like “watching Jeopardy”.

So, let’s say you haven’t been able to avoid the police paying you a visit. Whether it’s your house or a bank robbery, the same principles apply. First, when you’re caught you’re caught. At this point, the cops are not on your doorstep to make a judgment. They’re there to diffuse a situation. Don’t try to sweet talk out of it, and yelling isn’t going to help. Be easy to work with. Move slowly. Steady, following instructions. If they say get down, they don’t mean dance. Keep your hands visible. To the police. Avoid sudden movements like running, reaching for things, turning. And if you have a weapon, let them know with words.

You need to keep in mind that the police really don’t know what you’re thinking. When their guns are drawn, it’s because they think they may need to use them to protect themselves or innocent bystanders. At that time, it’s your job to not give them a reason.

Tomorrow’s a new day. You can sort it out then.

I’m not copaphile. They’d better have a damn good reason for pulling that trigger. I’m not happy to see cruisers on the street in general. But if someone’s incapable of following these simple steps and a tragedy occurs, it’s pretty tough for me to point a finger.

Posted in Know your current events, Mouthinkin.

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By rick – 02 Mar 10