higginbottom.com

(sent to me, good stuff!)

THE REAL PROBLEM WITH OUR GOVERNMENTAL SYSTEM

The folks who are getting free stuff, don’t like the folks who are paying for the free stuff. Because the folks who are paying for the free stuff, can no longer afford to pay for both the free stuff and their own stuff.

And, the folks who are paying for the free stuff, want the free stuff to stop. And the folks who are getting the free stuff, want even MORE free stuff on top of the free stuff they’re getting already.

Now, the people who are forcing people to PAY for the free stuff, have told the people who are RECEIVING the free stuff, that the people who are PAYING for the free stuff, are being mean, prejudiced and racist.

So, the people who are GETTING the free stuff, have been convinced they need to HATE the people who are PAYING for the free stuff because they are selfish. And they are promised more free stuff if they will vote for the people who force the people who pay for the free stuff to give them even more free stuff.

And — when the free stuff stops , the folks receiving the free stuff will riot, burn, steal and commit mayhem. For the “rich” owe them! It is
happening in England and coming here soon.

And that’s the Straight Stuff!

So the Mr. Coffee coffee maker I had finally quit. It wasn’t expensive, but still annoying that it just died. It was probably about 3 years old. I liked that it had a green backlit fairly large analog-style (hands) but LCD clock. It had a thermal carafe which meant no burnt coffee from it sitting on a warmer, but the caraffe was heavy and hard to open, so this time I decided to go back to a glass carafe coffee maker.

Good friend recommended the Cuisinart DCC-1200 12 cup maker, which had very positive reviews but I looked a little more and found a 14 cup model that looked like it had a nicer looking design. I ended up buying a ‘refurbished’ one from Abe’s of Maine for just $59.95 + shipping. Shipping was pricey at $12.19 but I still saved nearly $30. It came quickly and looked just like new. Note: It did say refurbished by Cuisinart themselves and that the warranty is 90 days. Perhaps a non-refurbished one has a longer warranty.
So how is it so far?

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I’ve been on a quest for some time to improve the quality of brewed coffee I make at home.  I learned there’s lots of factors.  The coffee of course, but how (and when) it’s ground, the water, the coffee maker, how long the coffee sits, whether it’s a coffee maker with a hot plate under a carafe (terrible!), or whether it’s made with some other kind of device altogether (e.g., french press).

On a recent trip a friend showed me what was claimed and he claimed to be the tool to make the BEST coffee.  A lofty claim.  But you know, it seems to be true!!!!

Meet Aeropress. A manual device that at first glance seems like a French Press and a large veterinary syringe!

It comes with little single use round paper filters (or you can get a ‘permanent’ type filter separately). You put a filter in a bottom cap that has holes in it for the brewed coffee to flow through. You screw the cap on the bottom of the main clear part that sits on top of a coffee mug. You put in coffee, a little hot water (up to a number on the side, typically the ’2′ mark), stir (with included stirrer), then the syringe like plunger is put in the top and gently pushed down to the coffee to exert pressure on the coffee/water, forcing it through the filter. That’s it, you’ve just made a double espresso! This can be diluted with hot water to a regular American style coffee or hot milk to make a latte.

And the result? It’s EXCELLENT!

Even better, the clean up is amazing. Remove the bottom cap and push the plunger further to push the hard and pretty dry ‘puck’ of coffee and filter out, and into your trash or compost or wherever! Clean the bottom of the rubber plunger and that’s it.

If you love coffee, get one now!

Loved this. Thanks Joe and his Stranded Starfish blog, and thanks to the authors of the book “The Art Of Possibility”

As the old man walked down a Spanish beach at dawn, he saw ahead of him what he thought to be a dancer. The young man was running across the sand, rhythmically bending down to pick up a stranded starfish and throw it far into the sea.

The old man gazed in wonder as the young soul again and again threw the small starfish from the sand into the water. The old man approached him and asked why he spent so much energy doing what seemed a waste of time. The young man explained that the stranded starfish would die if left until the morning sun.

“But there are thousands of miles of beach, and miles and miles of starfish. How can your effort make any difference?”

The young man looked down at the small starfish in his hand, and as he threw it to safety in the sea, said, “It makes a difference to this one!”

Anonymous

A good friend of mine, Curtis Ide, is passionate about pizza! Specifically, making great pizza at home. He’s so passionate in fact that he’s written a book about it with all the details, great pictures, and of course, lots of recipes!  He’s just put up a blog web site to talk about it and share info, so check it out!

http://passionateaboutpizzabook.com/

Professor Randy Pausch is dying and he knows it, of liver cancer.  But this inspiring wonderful man decided to inspire his students with his final lecture, telling them what’s really important in life.

You can see his last lecture here: google video or visit his web site at the above link for this and other videos and information.

Complain? You want to complain? It’s tax return time and the forms are SO annoying! The grass has started growing fast and that means I’m going to have to spend a lot more time cutting it than I want to. …

Complaining is expressing grief, pain, or discontent. It’s a complaint if you express how you feel something shouldn’t be the way it is, and usually you don’t offer a solution as to how it could be the way you want it.

We all complain, but does it do any good? No! Not only doesn’t it help, in fact it often just makes us feel worse about things and not just emotionally, but physically. We seem to think it will help ‘get it off our chest’ or maybe subconsciously we justify some perception of superiority by complaining about other things and people, but overall there’s NO benefit to it, to ANYONE, including the complainer.

Will Bowen, a reverend serving at a church in Kansas, talked about this in a sermon on finding prosperity, and this lead to him giving out little purple bracelets to his congregation and he told them to be ‘complaint free’ for 21 days, and if someone with a bracelet complained, to put the bracelet on the other arm to consciously remind them what they’ve done. Well, this has become HUGE. 5 millions bracelets and a book later, it’s still going.

Links:

• The bracelet web site and further information
• FAQ (frequently asked questions about how it got started, where the money goes, etc.)

Answering the question “how do we find happiness?” the Dalai Lama answered something like “stop doing all the things that make you unhappy.”

Complaining less is probably a good start.