Archive for the ‘Chit Chat’ Category

I’ve always been a big coffee drinker. I even worked as a barista in an Internet Cafe a lifetime ago.

While my coffee of choice at home has usually been the drip filter variety, I have gone through several types of coffee makers.  Various versions of French Press (Bodum for the Aussies) , internal and external drip filters even an old Italian style stove top espresso machine.

Stacey came home the other day, after visiting with our friends in Harrison and was talking about a one shot coffee machine that also made tea. I pointed out to her I’d shown her the same machine in Lowes about 4 weeks ago, but that wasn’t important.

She’s a big fan of the tea that comes out of it and wanted one. I love a good coffee and was thinking it would be quicker and easier to make coffee this way than the ol’ drip filter method.

We had to go to Lowes anyway, so we picked up one of the cheaper Keurig models and then headed to bed, bath and beyond to find they had an excellent selection of both coffee’s and teas.

It makes a cup in 8 or 10 oz in a minute or two, depending on if it’s turned off or not. The quality has been outstanding and very consistent.

I highly recommend these systems to coffee folks, wanting a good, quick coffee fix without the mess and fuss of a full blown coffee bar.

For those with the senseo, or other disk/ 1 shot systems, let me know what you like about them also.

Cheers,

Shane

Keurig B60 Special Edition Gourmet Single-Cup Home-Brewing System

There is a lot of talk in the states about health care reform. The President campaigned on it, and now actually wants to do something about his campaign promises. How about that. I guess in Australia that would make it a “core” promise.

I had hope that with the economy in the toilet and people paying stupid amounts for basic health care that both sides of the government might actually pull together as they did behind Roosevelt in the Great Depression.

I guess there isn’t a Napoleon Hill to pull things together this time around.

Australia has a hybrid system and although no where near perfect, it works reasonably well. There are horror stories as with all nationalized health care systems, but no more that I’ve heard in the states. I’ve been out of the country since end of 06 so some aussies may chime in with more up to date details.

The medicare system works quite well and will cover you for everything. There are wait times for what are termed elective surgeries and they can get long. It could be that things work a little smoother due to the lower population of Australia.

You also have the option of getting private health insurance. Which allows you faster access to specialists, choice of doctors and the like.

The private health insurance is strongly encouraged by the gov and they levy additional taxes on you if you don’t take it out past the age of 32.

The cost of this health insurance is significantly less than the US system.

To be frank the health care system in this country is a joke. When hospitals charge exorbitant fees because the insurance companies are paying and will discount 80% if you have no health insurance, it’s a joke.

If the costs were more reasonable, then the insurance would be more reasonable and a self employed person like me wouldn’t be looking at over 2,000 a month for proper coverage for my family of 4.

It’s actually more cost effective to pay your own way and take out some sort of hosptial coverage in case of accidents and emergency.

As to whether I think health care should be nationalized in the states? I currently think that the government is incapable of making good decisions due to the special interest groups and lobbyists.

So even if they did push it through it would be more expensive than it needs to be due to having to make enough people happy enough to vote.

There was a lot going on this week in Charlotte, NC for the NASCAR All-Star event.

One of the things that slipped through was an announcement from NASCAR and iRacing that there would be a sanctioned simulator division for 2010. Very cool in my opinion.

I’ve been racing online for over a decade now and iRacing is by far the most realistic simulator so far. My wife doesn’t understand my obsession with racing online and thinks I should take up a hobby that doesn’t stress me so much.

My thoughts are that when the racing is good and you have a good result that far out weighs the races where something happens and you end up frustrated. It’s a lot like racing for real. Take care of your gear, exercise a lot of patience and you can be quite successful.

AutoWeek Article

Want to try out iRacing and help me out at the same time?

Head over to www.iRacing.com and sign up for between 1 and 12 months, enter my email address as the referrer and they’ll shower me with presents. Well maybe a hat if I’m lucky. (shane DOT lowry AT orangesands DOT com)

If you sign up now and start learning how it all works, by the time NASCAR events roll around in 2010 you could be on the track with the likes of Dale Earnhardt Jr, Marcos Ambrose, Bobby Labonte and of course me.

Get out on the track and have some fun.

Shane

My wife, Stacey, has been doing a fair bit of WordPress Theme creation of late.

She finally got around to doing one for my personal site here. A few folks looking at my old theme mentioned that it lacked a little “attitude” and “style’ that I’m know for.

I think this one represents me pretty well.

Let me know what you think?

Cheers,

Shane

Now, I pride myself on being a pretty smart guy. Sure, I’m no rocket scientist but I do ok.

Occasionally, I’m forgetful or if you are less charitable, prone to boneheaded moves. See here for a move where I ran my brand new laptop over with our Jeep Rubicon.

This morning on the way to work, it was raining and I was organizing a couple of things before jumping in the Jeep and heading to work.

I placed my iPhone on the left rear taillight and got on with my tasks.

I then jumped in said Jeep and toddled off to work through the drizzle. It’s about a 10 minute drive, very pretty, through the back roads of Bentonville, Arkansas. Up hill and down dale, with plenty of twists and turns.

I get out the car, grab the umbrella and my laptop and proceed to pat myself down for my phone and wallet. Wallet was just where it was supposed to be but no iPhone.

I was walking away from the car thinking I must have left it on the counter inside and that, sure, I can deal without a phone for the day.

I then stopped dead in my tracks and said “Oh …. sh*t”

I turned around and looked at the jeep, sitting on the taillight right where I left it was my iPhone.

It was a little damp from the drizzle but works fine.

The $10 silicon sleeve that I use to protect my iPhone is grippy. Grippy enough to hold onto a Jeep in the rain for a 10 mintue drive to work.

Whew.

Shane