I don’t fancy myself as a coffee connoisseur (read snob) but I do like a decent cup of coffee. I’m also that person that can’t be talked to in the morning until I’ve had my first cup. A few years ago I learned about the Senseo Pod Coffee maker and bought one soon after.
I became a huge fan of being able to quckly brew a single cup of coffee. I also really enjoyed my Senseo, but alas the unit died on me recently and I was prepared to replace it but had been hearing buzz about the Keurig Coffee Brewing System and decided to do a little research.
Everything I read about it pointed to a pretty good system. So a few weeks ago I’m walking the aisles of my local Costco when low and behold I came upon a special Keurig package deal. It was for the Keurig B60 model, came with a ton of sample K Cups (the single serving cups used) and even included an adapter to use your own coffee as well. I figured I had to try it and snapped it up.
Overall the system is somewhat similar to the Senseo but there are a few noticeable differences. For one this unit is built much better and feels sturdy. The K cup system is also a lot cleaner than using the exposed coffee pods. No muss or fuss having to clean parts after a brew. Brew time appears to be about the same. The Keurig does have 3 cup size settings (small, medium, large). You can really only use the first two settings with standard K cups, I tried the large but the coffee tasted to weak for my taste. The large option is nice if you brew your own with the adapter where you can control the strength.
The system came with a ton of sample coffee’s and so far I’ve enjoyed the Newman’s Own Organics Special Blend (Extra Bold) brew the best. It also came with a selection of Teas as well as hot chocolate. There seems to be huge support from coffee makers for manufacturing K cups. So basically it has great support in the market and seems to be sold and stocked in many outlets now.
I do admit that I miss the forthy crema that the Senseo used to generate but I’m willing to trade it for the better tasting coffee the Keurig makes. If you are in the market for a single cup brewing system you should definitely take a look at the Keurig. Overall I’m very happy with it. they also offer smaller models than the one I got.
Leading up to the end of the year I heard a couple mentions of Project 365 which as far as I can tell appears to be a meme of sorts started by Photojojo whereby you create a dialy photo journal for a whole year.
While this idea was intriguing to me, I don’t think it’s something I could actually stick to for a whole year. So I looked at what social media services I currently used or where available that offered a tool where I could start a similar project.
I recalled a service I wrote about last year called Daily Mugshot for Lifestream Blog. This seemed like a good service that shouldn’t be too hard to commit to. I also wanted a way to do the same in video form. 12seconds.tv offers the best form for this by not only offering an easy way to create and post the videos, but by limiting the videos to 12 seconds, also creates a low barrier to stick to by only requiring me to record short daily messages.
I plan to embed a widget for each of these services onto my site as well as pipe through the feeds to my Lifestream here as well as other services including FriendFeed. I’ll need to find a way to embed 12Seconds videos to my site based on a tag before that can happen though. Luckily I have connections over there :)
If you are currently participating in a Project 365 or variation of please post a link in the comments below. Also, if you know of other cool ways to do a Project 365 or related services which would be useful, please post them as well.
So without further ado below are my first entries for this project. Hopefully I’ll be able to stick to it for a whole year.
Daily Mugshot
- stream currently displays a few test shots from 2008. My account is here - RSS feed for daily shots are also available. Mine is here
I was in the market for a case with a belt clip for my iPhone 3G and was searching through Amazon when I came across this case which had gotten 56 reviews with a 4+ star rating. It looked good and furthermore it was only $2.41!
I ordered it and was a little skeptical but after having it for 2 days I have to say it’s an amazing deal. I also ordered a silicone skin from the same vendor for about the same price and as you can see from the picture it still fits well in the case. It uses a magnetic flap for the cover. Both the headphone jack and speakers are exposed well with the phone sitting in the case. I was also pleasantly surprised to see it had an X (unintended logo for X PRIZE :) I highly recommend this case if you are looking for something similar.
The third party that sells this through Amazon is Bargaincell.com and the case is listed on their own site for $12.50 which would still be a good deal.
I took this photo the other day in my backyard of a hummingbird who was feeding while a very interested cat was looking on. It might take you a minute to find the hummingbird as it is a bit camouflaged in the photo. I have more shots, but this was the only one that came out well. This is just one of many interesting crosses with wildlife in my backyard. I need to create a set on Flickr soon.
January 4, 2009 
Posted in Lifestream 
Comments Sphere: Related Content
and bought one soon after.
, came with a ton of sample K Cups (the single serving cups used) and even included an adapter to use your own coffee as well. I figured I had to try it and snapped it up.
brew the best. It also came with a selection of Teas as well as hot chocolate. There seems to be huge support from coffee makers for manufacturing K cups. So basically it has great support in the market and seems to be sold and stocked in many outlets now.
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