Tag Archives: Coffee Zone

Only pussies complain about the word pussy

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Some of you regulars might be aware that I am a big fan of a local (Jefferson City) coffee shop called the Coffee Zone. I’m there every morning and I love the owner/proprietor, Taisir Yanis. There’s not a sweeter guy on the planet.

Last spring I set up a blog for the Coffee Zone and maintain it on my own time and money. Taisir tries to give me a free cup of coffee from time to time but it’s a labor of love.

I recently posted something silly about the Wawa coffee website. They “analyze” your personality based on how you like your coffee. I said something like, “…somebody give these pussies a cup of Rocket Fuel.”

Today I got a text message from Taisir that said: “Pussies.” T speaks English as well as I do but his written English can be a little mysterious at times. So I texted back: “What about ’em?”

To which he replied: “Blog”

Seems he had been getting complaints from customers about my (single) use of the word “pussies” on the Coffee Zone website. I apologized and immediately removed the offending word. T wasn’t offended but he didn’t want to lose a customer so that I might have a full arsenal of comedic words and expressions. And I don’t blame him. Then I started wondering how you lodge such a complaint.

Customer: “I’d like a double-espresso and a latte, please. Light on the foam.”
Taisir: “Here you go, four dollars.”
Customer: “By the way, I was very offended by something I saw on the Coffee Zone blog.”
Taisir: “I’m sorry to hear that. What offended you?”
Customer: (sotto voice) “Pussies.”
Taisir: “Sorry, I didn’t hear you.”
Customer: (louder) “Pussies!”
Taisir: “Where did you find “pussies” on my website?”
Customer: “Not so loud!”

You get the idea. As this scene played out in my head I was reminded of the scene in Silver Streak where Gene Wilder and Richard Pryor art trying to decide what kind of car to steal to catch up with the train that… never mind. That’s not important. Wilder wants to steal a Chevy and Pryor wants to steal a red jag. Roll the tape, please.

WILDER: “What are you doing? I thought we were gonna take the Chevy out back!
GROVER: (indicates a red Jag) Chevy!? That’s a jerk-off, man! This here’s pure pussy!

At some point later in the movie (I don’t remember the scen), Wilder is screaming at Pryor, “Pussy?! Pussy?!”

There really isn’t much connection between the scene in the movie and the post on the blog, but in the unlikely event the complaining customer also reads smays.com… I want them to get plenty of PUSSY! PUSSY! PUSSY!

Coffee Zone Radio

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Coffee Zone proprietor Tasir Yanis has an amazing mix of songs on his iPod. That’s what we listen to here at the Zone. Maybe it’s just the ambience of a coffee shop but the former radio program director in me often thinks Taisir’s mix would make a great radio format. Except for all the commercials you’d have to jam in between the songs.

CoffeezoneradioOr we could just download this little app for our iPhones. If I understand this correctly, it enables you to tap into your entire music collection on your home PC via your iPhone – and the music collections of your friends, too – and stream all of the above to your phone, wherever you go. [YouTube demo]

I found this on Mark Ramsey’s Hear 2.0 who describes it as being able to “create our own radio stations from our own content and share them with friends who are mobile.”

So I could listen to Coffee Zone Radio wherever I am? Or Planet Nelson Radio? Or Scott Brandon’s Friday Funk?

Okay, the iPhone is starting to look more and more like something I’m going to have to have. But I really want the thing to stream video, too. I’m getting close.

14 hours, 900 miles

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Destinroute

That’s a lot of windshield time for smays.com. But the company was good (Barb) and the distance still within my 1,000 mile drive-rather-than-fly range. Did I mention how much I hate the hassle of flying. You know what? I can’t wait for the current batch of American carriers to go belly-up. Sooner that happens, the sooner we’ll see alternatives. I’m serious as a depressurized cabin. But hey, I’m on vacation. Happy thoughts only.

The Miltenberger Clan has gathered here in beautiful Desin for a week of sun and fun. The nearby Starbucks (sorry, Taisir) has free wifi and I have some good books I’ve been stockpiling. Gotta run, it’s time for my post-drive bottom massage.

Taisir Yanis, Fez #16

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انه في حين كان رأينا منذ اكثر من الدخان الابيض معبد فاس. حتى رفع رباعية لقطة Espresso ونرحب فاس # 16 ، taisir yanis. Taisir هو المالك / المالك وسوء الحمار barista من البن في المنطقة ، على مادة الكافيين في نقطة الصفر جيفرسون سيتي ، ميسوري. منزل fezzes # 14 ، 6 # # 1 و. Taisir كتابي من اللغة الانجليزيه هي… متشكك ، ولذا فاننا video’d التماسه للاستحقاق. جميلة نحن على يقين من انه يتحدث العربية ولكنه سوف يكون خلال ايام قليلة علينا قبل ان تحصل على النسخ. ولكن نظرا للطريقة التي تسير الامور ، نحن حظيت باهتمام انه قد يكون من المفيد ان يكون ليتحدث العربية الأعضاء في النظام. انا انفاق المزيد من الوقت مع نوعية taisir من طرف زوجتي حتى بوسعي ان اشهد على الجداره. انضم لي ان ارحب taisir الى النظام الملكي وتعالى من فاس. يمكنك استخدام التعليق على الوصله ادناه او البريد الالكتروني في taisir yaniscoffeezone@gmail.com. [Video]

Radio with pictures

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Fezcast1I gotta face it. I’m a radio guy. I have neither the face nor the concentration for TV. That’s my take-away from this morning’s live webcast from the Coffee Zone. Just too many things to keep track of. Watch the chat stream, monitor the audio (which is several seconds behind what is being said), look at the camera… whew!

As I replayed our half-hour chat I found myself thinking, this would have been much easier (and less painful for all concerned) if we’d just streamed the audio. Pictures added nothing to our little experiment.

We had 9 or 10 people watching, giving us encouragement in the chat room like parents at a grade-school production of 12 Angry Men, whispering our lines from the wings (“Turn up the mic!”).

I think I’m going to look for some sort of live event for the next webcast. Perhaps the 4th of July parade or something. Stay tuned.

iMage Webcam, CamTwist and Ustream

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I’ve been trying to assemble the best combination (for me) of hardware and software for streaming live video. The ease-of-use and price (free, for now) of Ustream.tv has made it possible for any nimrod to play in Wayne’s World.

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MacBooks, with the built-in iSight camera, make live video just that much easier but sometimes you want to point the camera the other direction, so an external webcam enters the picture (so to speak).

This weekend I’ve been playing with the iMage webcam from eCamm. It doesn’t look like much but –for $60– it delivers a very nice image and you can put it in your pocket. I’ve mounted mine on a small tripod.

The final –and most exciting– piece of the puzzle has been a freeware app called CamTwist. CamTwist works very well with Ustream.tv and comes with an amazing set of features and a UI that’s intuitive and easy to use. If you’re interested, I recommend this short video, but let me mention some of the cool things CamTwist does:

  • Stream your desktop. Rather than making your webcam the video source, CamTwist lets you stream all or part of your computer’s desktop. Let’s say I wanted to show some co-workers in Des Moines how to use a new piece of software. I could simply stream the demo over Ustream. Much better than me trying to remotely "take over" their desktop.
  • Slide Show. The slide show source allows you to stream still pictures. You can drag pictures to the list from your desktop and even iPhoto.
  • Movie. With the movie source, you can play movies over your broadcast. You can drag in several movies to the play list or select a single movie with the movie selection button. Next Saturday George and I are gonna take another run at streaming live from the Coffee Zone. Instead of just watching us yacking for half an hour, we can play video clips as part of the live feed.
  • Flickr Set. Similar to Slide Show, the flickr set source will fetch pictures from a flickr feed and stream them on your broadcast. Why would you want to do this? I don’t know, but it’s cool.
  • Picture-in-Picture. Once you have your video going, it’s possible to overlay another video source on your video.
  • Chroma Key. Sometimes called a Green Screen. This is typically used to create the appearance that something is behind you, such as a picture or a movie. George and I figured out the other features but I haven’t tried this one yet.

There you have it. An inexpensive webcam; a feature-rich piece of freeware; and –for now– a free streaming solution at Ustream.tv. Do we have any program that’s especially compelling or useful? No. But that will be the easy part. And when it comes up, we’ll be ready to share it with the world.

ASUS Eee PC

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You see all kinds of laptops at the Coffee Zone. PC’s and Mac’s of every description. This morning I saw something I had not spotted before. Small, white… almost like a baby MacBook.

I barged in on the nice man (a lobbyist) trying to enjoy his scone and working on his ASUS Eee PC. Runs Linux, has a flash drive, built-in webcam and three USB ports.

And costs about $400. Not for the power user but a very slick “web appliance.”

Live from the Zone: May 3, 9:30 a.m.

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Georgetv
If you’re up and online this Saturday at 9:30 a.m. Central, try to catch a few minutes of our live webcast from Yanis Coffee Zone here in Jefferson City. It’s one of those "we’re doing it just because we can" events. Taisir (Owner and Proprieter) is gonna set up a table in a corner and George Kopp and I will plug in the video camera and shoot the breeze.

If you want to chat, you need to a) create an account at UStream.tv or b) IM me at smaysdotcom. We’ll probably go for 30 min or so, unless we start having a lot of fun. If you don’t see any live video it means we screwed the pooch and will have to post some lame-ass excuse. We’ll have the video player front and center here at smays.com.

On a typical day, we get about 300 visitors here. I’d like to see how many folks we can have watching at any one time.