I’ve been helping my friend Taisir feed and care for a blog for his coffee shop. It’s a labor of love and I’m there every morning anyway. With help from Phil we got his domain in place.
In time, we hope to build an online community to compliment the one he has built with his customers.
It was in this spirit that I stopped by Our Ink Don’t Stink and got my first body art.
UPDATE: The website where the image above was created no longer exists. But I did find what appears to be the source image.
The tagline on the Art Text website is: “Where text becomes art,” and that’s pretty much right on. I’ve been looking for an app that would compensate for my lack of graphic design skills and this comes close. If you have the Photoshop chops you can probably do everything that Art Text does but even then it’s going to take you longer. This graphic for the Coffee Zone took about 5 minutes to create.
I am not a fun guy (by conventional standards). I usually don’t enjoy a lot of things (beach, skiing, ocean cruise, etc etc) others find enjoyable. But I do have a few things that give me great pleasure. Reading, for example. I can spend an 8 or 10 hours on a weekend reading a good book.
And I love my quiet time at the Coffee Zone, a local coffee shop owned and operated by Taisir Yanis. I’ve posted from and about the Zone many times.
This morning I decided the Coffee Zone needed a blog so I whipped one up while slurping Rocket Fuel, the high octane java that makes all other coffee taste like lukewarm Yoo-Hoo.
I’ve got to post his menu and add some pix but this will do for a start. Taisir registered a good domain –YanisCoffeeZone.com– and we’ll get that in place in a day or so.
Taisir knows and likes his customers and they like him. It will be fun to see how we might use his blog to build and serve the community he has created.
“Howard D. Schultz, the chief executive of Starbucks, announced sweeping changes on Wednesday for the company as it seeks to reconnect with customers who have left for competitors or pared back their coffee budget in hard economic times. The initiatives are intended to restore an authentic coffeehouse experience to the stores and, in turn, re-energize an ailing stock that has lost half its value in the last 15 months.” — NYT
I’ve never thought of Starbucks as “an authentic coffeehouse experience.” You can still find that in some cities. Madison, Wisconsin has some great coffee shops. And we have a nice one here in Jefferson City.
The Coffee Zone is my favorite hang-out. Taisir is the owner and he’s there every morning at 6:30 (that’s when he opens, I’m sure he’s there earlier).
He knows what his regulars drink and often has it for them by the time they step up to the counter. He’s got free wifi and plays an eclectic mix of music that beat’s Starbucks hands down.
When I come back from a trip I sometimes tease, “I got me some Starbucks while I was in (wherever).” To which Taisir replies, “Tastes like Maxwell House, yes?”
The Coffee Zone was packed. SRO. I chatted with Gaylin for a couple of minutes (I think she’s the instructor) and learned that some of the dancers were beginners and others were more experienced.
“The 2008 election is already shaping up to be the most cyber-savvy presidential contest in the brief history of the Web. Now three major Web sites — Yahoo Elections 2008, The Huffington Post, and Slate — have announced that they will collectively host two online-only debates, one for the announced Democratic candidates and one for Republicans.
The debates will allow the candidates to participate wherever they are located around the country. Each will appear on live video, and will be able to speak to and question the other candidates through the online connection.
The debate will also be uniquely interactive for the audience. Viewers will be able to submit both written and video questions in real-time, and can blog their responses to the candidates’ answers.
The idea of hosting a virtual presidential debate was the brainchild of conservative-turned-liberal-pundit Arianna Huffington, who saw the potential for an online forum while at the World Economic Forum in Davos. That event was covered by both traditional journalists and bloggers.” — Yahoo! News
So, I can be sitting in the Coffee Zone in beautiful downtown Jefferson City (slurping Rocket Fuel)… record a 30 second question and zap the the video clip to the debate site…and see my question (and candidate responses) 5 minutes later. Or, watch what hundreds (thousands?) of bloggers are saying, about what the candidates are saying, in real time. Okay, that’s only cool to bloggers.
I find most TV debates to be a waste of everyone’s time. But I might watch/take part in something like this.
Like all regulars at the Coffee Zone, I’ve been anticipating the arrival of Izabella Schereen Yanis (6 pounds, 11 ounces), the newest addition to the Yanis Family. We hope and assume Taisir used something other than his Treo to capture the first images.
Just installed Google Earth on the MacBook and….oooh! Nice. Last time I looked at the app it had just come out and I was on a PC. Everything about Google Earth is better. The images have been updated and the tools are amazing. Here’s the smays compound:
Sitting in the Coffee Zone, slurping some Rocket Fuel, connected to the world. The way it was meant to be. In all fairness, I rarely lugged my Thinkpad around. Just too heavy. Not IBM’s (at the time) fault. I bought one of the heaviest models they offered. No idea why. But on the few occasions I took the thing on the road and attempted to connect wirelessly, it was usually something of a chore. Again, probably not the fault of Microsoft or IBM. I just never took the time to learn how to make it all work. It was too much trouble.
This morning I fired up the new Mac…it saw the open hotspots…I picked one…and here we are. All things in life should be so easy. Why wouldn’t a boy just keep his laptop with him all the time? Stay tuned.
I’m still struggling to post regularly. How in the hell do people with kids find time to blog? How do people with jobs find time to blog? (Yes, I hear whining, too) Between work, the dogs, Barb (not necessarily in that order), exercise, eating, sleeping, American Idol and a weekly nap…there’s just no time left. I’m telling you, this blogging thing would be a lot easier if you were out of work.
09:00 a.m. – Get out of bed. Shower and shave (optional)
09:30 a.m. – Breakfast at the Towne Grill
10:30 a.m. – Large Rocket Fuel at The Coffee Zone
10:45 a.m. – Barnes & Noble
11:45 a.m. – Lunch (Pastrami on Rye at the Sub Shoppe)
12:45 p.m. – Home. Half hour of fetch with Luch and Ripley
01:15 p.m. – Nap
02:30 p.m. – Surf the Web/blog
05:00 p.m. – More fetch with Lucy and Ripley
05:30 p.m. – ABC World News Tonight
06:00 p.m. – Feed the dogs
06:05 p.m. – Check email; surf/blog
06:30 p.m. – Dinner with Barb (microwave something or take her to Chili’s)
07:30 p.m. – Free time
08:30 p.m. – Surfing/blogging
10:00 p.m. – Daily Show
10:30 p.m. – Colbert Report
11:00 p.m. – Unstructured online time
12:00 p.m. – Reading in bed
01:00 a.m. – Lights out
Of course, things would slow down a bit on the weekends.