Coffee

My wife got me a Krups coffee grinder and some fair trade espresso coffee beans to play with. Beans are actually scarce in Finland, which seems odd to me. Surely there are enough coffee aficionados around to support some beans in specialty stores? Anyway, this fair trade foodstuffs store sports some beans, but you get no selection: it's the regular or the espresso brand, that's it.

Luckily, I have no qualms over the bean quality. Good stuff! I do not consider myself a coffee elitist, but man, the on-demand grinded coffee is such a big thing. Of course it is simply a very fun ritual to get some beans and grind them yourself, but the aroma of the grinded beans... mmm! I've drank quite a bit of store-packaged espresso grind and dare say it's a whole different thing.

I've used the self-grinded coffee both in an espresso machine and a drip-feed coffeemaker and it works both ways. Recommended! The basic grinder does not cost much, I don't see much use for the fancy version with adjustable grind coarseness and whatnot.

(It was a good christmas, by the by. Can't wait to try out the pasta machine next!)

Better living through technology

Sports, or the lack thereof

I regret to say I've slacked off on sports. With first snow I stopped running and while the snow has melted away, I haven't been to the track since. I'm not sure why. Partly because of being tired and stressed out at work, partly because I just can't bother myself. With that said, I realized the situation last week and decided to go running again. We'll see how it goes, I'm hoping to do a run three times a week. That way it would maybe become routine and not something extra I have to bother myself to do after a tiring day at work.

Delivered

I've been a little active in other ways. I set up a forum for my class from 1999, as I promised. I chose BBPress, which isn't really that suitable for us, but I'll see if it's worthwhile to tinker with it. I do like it how it's very stripped down.

I'm not posting the URL because the forum's not closed to outsiders and I rather wouldn't have to deal with spammers.

Bakkanaalit

I set up a forum for my friends, too. We've spoken about it many times, but now it felt like a good idea, with the hosting already available. I don't really know if we'll learn to use it, but it's there, now. There have been quite a few times I've felt like posting about something, but not really considering it worth an email or a call. I chose Simple Machines, which initially feels alright. There are troubles with updating it, though.

If I know you, especially in real life, you're likely welcome on the forum: bakkanaalit.mcmuumio.net. It does require registration and activation by a member.

I'm not really active in any other forums these days, apart from my roleplaying association's rather active forum. I do post in the comments of Kotaku and Eurogamer, but they're not societies like forums are.

Nine Inch Nails, Sony CMT-CPZ1

Nine Inch Nails

Nine Inch Nails is coming to Finland to conclude their 2007 European tour in April. Cool, that, and I've got tickets with my wife (and friends). NIN was one of the really big groups in my teenage years and I like them still, which is easy, since they've only released good albums. I hear from last time's witnesses that they are really very good live, which is of course a good thing, too.

Sony CMT-CPZ1

Related to music, we got a new stereo set last night, a Sony CMT-CPZ1 mini-system (weighing in at 300€). We've been without a set for years, settling for portable players and TV output and I have to say that it feels good to hear music properly again.

It's only a mini-set, as I can't fathom putting 200€-plus on just an amplifier, let alone some speakers, but an audible revelation it is, nonetheless. We went with Sony due to it sounding better than the other sub-500€ sets.

It was also the only not hideous-looking set on the shelves, which is just weird. You'd think they'd design 200-600€ worth of electronics a little more pleasing on the eyes. I see now that the set has got favorable reviews and general praise for sound quality, which is always nice. So far I have no problems with it.

mcMuumio.net

I finally got myself a domain with my wife, with the help of a friend. mcMuumio.net is hosted at Dreamhost. The domain is registered with GoDaddy.com. I'm not at all sure what we're going to do with it, but I have some PHP projects in mind, along with an online photo gallery thing. I'm also thinking about moving this blog over there, considering that it's new and the current URL isn't spread around too much.

There's nothing of interest in the site as of now, this is merely to explain the link I just added to the margin over there on the right.

Update and SketchUp

I've progressed somewhat in the fitness game. It's mostly noticeable in the speed of recovery after a run; I breathe easier. I'm trying to add one minute to the run to make it six, but yesterday my legs began to cramp up and I had to stop early. I suspect it's because I ran faster than what I'm used to. It may also be lack of intake of fluids, coffee notwithstanding.

Regardless, I've managed to stick to my every other day -plan. Also, my social rule has stood. This week's "dosage" is still in the air, though.

And now for something completely different

I was thinking where I'd put this, but I suppose I'm not going to publish a separate "arts and hobbies" blog (aside from gaming), so here it goes. I read about Google's SketchUp in Edge. It's very near revolutionary, I'd say.

I've dabbled in various 3D software packages, but they've all been so hard to use that I've given up. SketchUp is designed for normal people. I guess it could be easier still, but the basics are very easy to grasp and the presentation is not intimidating - on the contrary, it invites you to model.

Push the button

"Push-button publishing", they say. Blogger won't let me rearrange the right-hand elements, so until I can indeed push the "Save" button, bear with me.

(Edit: okay, the ol' sign out - sign in did the trick.)

That said, I did choose Blogger, again, to set up this blog, even though I'm in the process of getting a shared server with friends, which will in turn enable me to set up WordPress, for instance. I don't know what I'll do with the server, really, but I'm all giddy about owning a domain.

(Edit 2: The Blogger Beta this thing's running on isn't entirely co-operative. I can't figure out how to make a clean footer section, it wants to make it all huge and ugly. Will be beautified someday.)