Coffee: The Greatest Addiction Ever

10 Things You should know about Starbucks

Here is a very interesting article about Starbucks. I will give the author credit so you can read the full article here.

Cuteness Overload

I better start drinking more Evian

Best Coffee Machine in the World

I was at a meeting held in a hotel and as part of the catering they had a Nespresso machine.

I had machine coffee before it was usually bitter and tasted like puddle water but I did not mind, as long as it had a strong caffeine kick. Nespresso is different. Nespresso comes with these small tin pouches that are colored according to the strength of the coffee you want. You insert the pouch in the slot just aboove the spout and press the button. After you press the button, the rest is magic. Neon lights flash, the machine hums, the pouch is punctured and blasted with a powerful stream of steam, and into your cup pours coffee. Even before you drink your coffee, the smell of freshly made coffee is all over the room, so strong you could taste it. Tasting the coffee, all your senses tingle. The feeling is so good, it probably is banned in a few backward countries.

Words cannot describe it, but here is a picture of this particular Nespresso machine.

The Caffeine Click Test

I woke up extremely early today and rushed to make myself a coffee so I could open my eyes. As the caffeine burnt into my bloodstream, I came across this coffee test.
The results are only for my first cup. I am sure after a few more cups I will reach Delusions of Godhood. Try it and see where you are.


OnePlusYou Quizzes and Widgets

Mini Rants

I don't get upset easily. Usually I find those situations funny. So these are not really rants, more like small bothersome events that make the day more interesting.

Don't you just hate when you go to Starbucks / Columbus / Costa / (insert your favorite coffee shop name) etc. and you order coffee and some muffin or sandwich, you pass the cashier a bill and then they ask for change? Excuse me Mr. Cashier, I only have a wallet and try not to carry coins in my pocket so I don't sound like a piggy bank, you are the one standing behind a cash machine stuffed with cash from selling over priced coffee, also if you don't have change, stop pricing your coffee at 1 Dinar and 457 fils. Give it nice round numbers and you will not have a change problem.

I got a call this morning from an Egyptian lady, she called my mobile and knew my name. I wonder who is giving away my mobile number. She said they had a special offer for house water filters, they will send an Engineer over for free and check my water filter and even check the parfor. I asked, what is a parfor she said it is part of the water filter, so I asked again, what is it specifically? She hmmmed, and she aaahhed for a few minutes then she said she had no idea, she was just told to call this list of numbers and to tell the victims on the list about the free engineer visit. OK, I thanked her and said I will call them and closed the phone.

I got a call from Kentucky Fried Chicken later today, they had good news for me. They have selected 50 lucky people in Kuwait and I was one of them. I won a free order of chicken if I ordered one order, I would get the second one for free. So I told the chicken guy I just had dinner and if I could possibly call him tomorrow when I was more hungry, he put me on hold, then came back and said he got special permission from his manager and they will extend that offer just for me. I just needed to call Kentucky tomorrow at the same time and ask for Mamdooh Hanafi and he will save that offer just for me. I am so fortunate, but I don't feel like eating hormone pumped chemically preserved oil soaked chicken tomorrow so I think I will pass on that offer.

Now for something completely unrelated, here is David Bowie with Heroes:

Je vous en prie Monsieur Sarkozy

You are supposed to wiggle the little cup if you don't want more Arabic coffee, not clink it.

Starbucks going Skinny

Starbucks has started a low profile campaign called skinny. The idea is that when you order a drink, you ask for it to be a skinny drink which means you'd like sugar-free syrup, non-fat milk, and no whip cream.

I don't know if it also works in Kuwait, someone needs to try to order something skinny and let me know.

But, the Barristas' in the States are protesting, because a lot are overweight and they feel uncomfortable using the word skinny.

More here.

Picture taken from here.

Starbucks Training Video

Here is something interesting that I found while browsing youtube and craving coffee, a Strabucks training video.






Now how does our Kuwait Starbucks measure up ?

1) Be Welcoming - "Heeelloo suuurrr", yup they are welcoming.
2) Be Knowledgeable - well most of them are, but I don't like the cross selling.
3) Be Involved - They do give barrista lessons, I don't know about other community activities.
4) Be Considerate - I dropped a few coffees and they did replace it for me for free, so that counts for being considerate.


All in all pretty good.

Coffee Drinks explained

Lokesh Dhakar on his blog was confused by the different coffee drinks combinations offered at the different coffee places like Starbucks. He did a little research and came up with this excellent illustration that describes all the popular coffee drinks.





This list does not include my drink, which would be a quadruple shot of espresso.

Red Bull

Ever wondered what is inside that can of blue of and silver called Red Bull and does it really "give you wings" ?

I know it has plenty of caffeine and that should be enough to make anyone climb walls and kick start your day, but what other active potent mixes does it have.

Well Red Bull has bull bile. Yes, Bull Bile, or as is labelled on the can Taurin. Among the effects of Taurin is that it reduces blood pressure and reduces muscles fatigue. Studies on mice showed that obese mice do not gain weight when given Taurin. Taurin is also being tested as a treatment for anti-manic depression for bipolar disorder.

Redbull has some Glucuronolactone. Glucuronolactone has been shown to improve memory retention and concentration as well as acting as an antidepressant and stimulant.

Last but not least, Red Bull has Inositol. Inositol is a carbohydrate found in animal muscle. Inositol is deficient in depressed people meaning lack of it causes increased depression. It is used in the treatment of obsessive compulsive disorder. Experiments and animal studies show that it is can be used against some kinds of cancers.

Translating all of the above, Red Bull is full of goodness and can really give you wings. Now where did I put my can of Red Bull.

Shamiyah Starbucks Suggestions

I always take my laundry to the Shamiyah Laundry. I tried other Laundromats and they always return my clothes faded different colors or wrongly pressed.

Today, I went around 8pm to the Shamiyah Laundry. The clothes where not ready but I was promised that they would be ready by 9pm. I thought it would be a good opportunity to have a coffee at Starbucks and read a newspaper while I waited. Starbucks is just a few meters from the Laundry inside the Shamiyah so called Mall.

I was sitting, enjoying my coffee and catching up on the latest news, when one of the waiters came by and asked me to fill up a suggestions pamphlet. I don't have any major complaints about Starbucks; their service is ok and reasonably fast and clean.

After I finished reading the newspaper I took pen in hand and wrote some suggestions.





My handwriting is atrocious, so I will translate here:

1) Deliver order to table.

It would be really nice if they delivered the order to the table, I don't mind standing in line to place my order, but I don't like to have my number called like a nameless sheep and rush to the red light to take my order.

2) Don't ask or suggest extras for my order.

I know what I usually want for my order, I don't need extra whipped cream, or banila blaybo added.

3) Don't shout the everybody's order.

Legend has it that Starbucks did a study and found out that their workers are more productive if they shout the order to each other. Well I don't care much for Starbucks culture, just take the order quietly and make sure you make it fast and right.

4) Put more couches and satellite TV.

Starbucks contrary to other places have nice comfortable couches to allow you to lay your lazy ass and drink your coffee. Everyone likes those couches, so get rid of the chairs and put more couches. While you are it, install flat panel TVs everywhere with satellite and put remotes on each couch.

5) Put video games.

If they apply my suggestion number 5, might as well put some video games and have people playing their hearts and fingers out.

6) Allow customers to make their own coffee.

Watching all these Starbucks waiters make coffee for me I thought it would be fun if I was let loose on the coffee machine, I would make a four shot espresso with a little vanilla steam the place up.

7) Give free WiFi Internet.

The cofee is already steeply price, I don't think Starbucks will lose much if they made the Internet free as part of the service.

Coffee Haiku

Strange Love Triangle
My daily needs are but few
Cake coffee and you



Taken from here.

My Starbucks Coffee

I know this is an ad, but it was fun. Here is my preffered starbucks combination:





You can make your own Starbucks drink here.

They also promised to give me a T shirt but I could not find a link to take me there, maybe they meant that I should make the graphics and print my own T shirt?

If anyone finds how I can get my T shirt, let me know.

Laptop Reincarnation

Reincarnation

The Hindu or Buddhist doctrine that a person may be reborn successively into one of five classes of living beings (god or human or animal or hungry ghost or denizen of Hell) depending on the person's own actions

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My laptop died on me a few months back. My laptop just reached its third birthday, I know it is old but it survived being lugged around all over, being put in a suitcase and having lots of coffee spilt on it. I could not let an old friend die a miserable death. I mourned its loss for a few days. I had all my pictures and music on it. To emerge from my deep grief and depression, I went out and bought me a fully loaded desktop. I knew the problem was the hard disk. Hard disks usually have lifetimes of three to five years.

Once I got reconnected to the Internet from my desktop, I put on my surgical gloves, (not really, but it would have been more dramatic if I did). I looked for some magical software that would allow me to resurrect my now dead laptop back to life. After toiling night and day, I found a utility that builds a boot CD. That magical CD allowed me to recover my hard disk after booting from it.

I booted, my laptop came back to life, I wanted to scream, "its alive", just like Dr Frankenstein, when the thunder bolt zapped through the creature he was assembling.

I backed up all my music and digital photos to an external hard disk. Then moved them back safely to my new desktop. A little software tweaking and everything was safely back.

I left my laptop to collect dust and rest in peace. Everytime I passed my dead laptop a tear streaked down my cheek (not really). I always thought that if a laptop started misbehaving, it was as good as dead because you cannot fix it in Kuwait and I did not feel like shipping it to the US to be fixed. A few days ago, I met an old friend in Hawalli Bin Khaldoon Street. Marzouq mentioned him a few months ago in his post. It was Happy (yes his name is Happy). I knew Happy from Wazzan when he was working there. He always gave me the best prices. I was happy to see him again, I found out that he can fix laptops, so I brought my dead laptop to him. I knew everything in my laptop was working fine except for the dead hard disk. I bought a new 120 GB hard disk and went upstairs to Happy's workshop. The workshop was an apartment Kitchen, with different computer stuff thrown around.


I stayed there while my hard disk got replaced, a new Windows XP installed on the new Hard Disk and it booted normal. My laptop just got a new life. Now I need to download the updated drivers and it will be working like new.



The wonders of Reincarnation.

Office Tea

In most Kuwaiti offices, someone is employed to serve tea and coffee to the employees so that their caffeine level is raised sky high and makes them buzz all day at maximum efficiency. That person is called a farash or Tea boy. A lot of farash's are jealously guarded by their respective departments because they know how to do the coffee just right, or cook the tea to a millisecond precision and add the exact proportions of milk to it. Other farash's that are not so talented, make you hate your morning.

Here is a little movie of our Farash doing his magic:

Ghetto latte

On my Google Home page I have a list of the top 30 keywords requested in various search engines (I think, it could be some other source). You have your usual Paris Hilton, Britney Spears, etc. but one set of keywords that caught my eye was Ghetto Latte. I like to think that I know my coffee but I never heard of Ghetto Latte. So I followed the link and after a few clicks I found out.

According to the Free Dictionary, "Ghetto latte or bootleg latte refers to a latte where the customer has used the free milk and other condiments to convert a cheaper drink into an approximate copy of a more expensive one. This practice can be regarded as a form of arbitrage. Similar forms of arbitrage have existed in the past for other products including hamburgers."

So that means, you go to Starbucks, order an Espresso, go to the condiments stand, pour yourself some hot milk, pour your espresso over it, add sugar, stir and you get your Ghetto Latte.

You learn something new everyday.

Coffee Shop Incident

I was sitting at a Coffee shop in Dubai and asked the Filipino waitress if she had honey to sweeten the cafe latte that I was ordering. She replied, "We have playboy only" I paused, trying to comprehend, "What?", I asked. "We have playboy", she repeated. "Excuse me? What do you mean?", I asked again. "we have playboy, we have caramel, banila, chokooloot playboy". "Ok, thank you, no playboy for me" I answered.

House Disturbance

The Time: 8 Years ago, in August
Location: My old house

I was coming back home at around 11pm. As I maneuvered my car to park in front of my pavement, I notice that the top floor lights are on. I knew my house was empty except for the maid. Something did not look right. The maid would usually be asleep and not have the lights on. I pulled out the crowbar that I keep under the front seat of my car for protection. I walked through the front gate of the house and pushed open the main entrance and got inside. I Looked up the flight of stairs as I was about to go up, I heard banging noises, the repeating noises sound like a heavy object hitting a door. Two men are talking softly in Arabic. I realized that someone is trying to break into a room upstairs. I quietly walked out and locked the front door behind me, crowbar still in hand. I went to the back of the house to check that the backdoor is locked also. The idea is to lock the burglars in, and call the police giving them time to catch the burglars red handed. I called the police on my mobile softly whispering my address and what is happening to the dispatcher. The 7osh (courtyard) is dark; I never bothered to put in new bulbs after they burnt out. The only light is from the street lamp outside. As I was about to go to the front of the house, I saw a dark figure climbing down the ground floor window. I ran to him, waving the crowbar above my head, I wanted to split his criminal head. "Stop", the figure commanded, as I ran towards him. I see his arm outstretched ending with a menacing gun aimed directly at me. I quickly thought, crowbar versus gun, not a very fair fight. I froze, "Drop what you have", he barks. I did as he said. "Lie down on the floor". I curl in a fetal position, my arms wrapped around my head. My thoughts where, if he is going to shoot my head, I might have the remote chance that my arms would slow down any bullet flying towards my precious brain. A bullet anywhere else in my body would not be lethal, I figured, or at least buy me time for medical help. He picks the crow bar from the ground, swung at my bent leg; I heard a dull thump, after what seems to be a little time, I felt a hot growing pain mixed with numbness growing from the point the heavy metal struck me till the throbbing pain spread across my lower left leg, no bones cracked. I lied still. "If you move, I will shoot you", I did not move for a few minutes as he makes his get away.

I get up. My leg hurts but it is not broken, I got out and stould on the street waiting for the police to arrive. I made a few more calls to high relatives with high ranks in the police force. The police arrive fifteen minutes later. They surrounded the house and closed off the area I lived in. They hesitantly entered the house guns drawn and go upstairs. I follow after them. We find the maid tied up with duct tape, frightened but otherwise unharmed. One locked door has the handle badly damaged. It seemed I surprised the burglars and they could no break the door. No one is hurt and nothing is missing from the house.

The Time: Today
Location: My new house

I am outside having a coffee. I get a call on my mobile from my maid. She hysterically shouts on the phone saying she heard a big noise downstairs. I think fast. It could it be another burglary in the making. I am far away and it would take me 30 minutes to reach the house in this Ramadan traffic. I tell her calmly that I am outside and far away. I assure her it is probably nothing  and ask her to quietly go down and see what the commotion is. I tell her I will call her back after five minutes. I did a quick mental scenario calculation. If it was another burglary, the most that could happen to her is that she gets mummified with duct tape. If I was to rush to the house, I would be too late, and secondly, I might get another gun pointed in my face. I call after five minutes, if she does not answer; it could mean trouble and I will call the police. She answers, laughing, saying she discovered a cat jumping around in the 7osh. All is well; history did not repeat itself today.

Book Tag

I got this tag from Mia's blog, even though Mia didn't not tag me exclusively. It is a pretty safe tag with no deep dark revelations so I thought it would be fun to do it. I was also accused of being a lazy blogger by Qatar Cat, which is true BTW. QC, it is hard to post anything inspirational with no coffee and an empty stomach so I do cheat, and I post from youTube, but the vids are carefully chosen to be entertaining yet have some value.

Back to the tag:

1. Grab the nearest book.
2. Open the book to page 23.
3. Find the fifth sentence.
4. Post the text of the next 3 sentences on your blog along with these instructions.
5. Don’t you dare dig for that "cool" or "intellectual" book in your closet! I know you were thinking about it! Just pick up whatever is closest.
6. Tag five people.


"In the mystery, on the other hand, the biggest scene of all, the actual murder, takes place offstage. Most of the emotions, in fact, are buried, hidden beneath facades and lies and secrets; it is the task of the detective to bring them to light. Much is told from the perpsective of the present looking back upon the past."

The book is, "How to Write Killer Fiction: The Funhouse of Mystery & the Roller Coaster of Suspense" by Carolyn Wheat.

Qatar Cat, you are tagged. Anyone one else would like to do this tag, you are welcome to do the tag also.