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Coffee

19 (51.4%)

Tea

12 (32.4%)

Tacos

6 (16.2%)

Total Members Voted: 36

[Mite]

Ah, but the human cost is much much higher.

[pmcd9]

We want to start kegging, but we don't really have the capital right now. Kegerators are pricey!

As I've reported here before, it was when I comptemplated buying a kegerator as you call it, that I began to seriously reconsider my priorities.  However, maybe they have gotten more pricey, but back then I was looking at one to hold a full size keg gently used for $75. 

~Paul

[robot_god]

Oh. My. God.  Have you NO LOVE for our microbial friends who make our lives golden and delicious? 

I love 'em so much I got me some dolls of S. pyogenes as well as Shigella.

http://img95.imageshack.us/img95/913/dcp00491ne.jpg

[KeithHernandez]

Nice PKD and Chinua (SP??) Achebe.  You just earned some cans.

[kellichou]

As I've reported here before, it was when I comptemplated buying a kegerator as you call it, that I began to seriously reconsider my priorities.  However, maybe they have gotten more pricey, but back then I was looking at one to hold a full size keg gently used for $75. 

We bought a conversion kit for about $170 (including fancy tap handles, all the tubing and connectors, plus the CO2 tank and regulator), and a secondhand fridge for $100, and did the drilling and fitting ourselves.  Ours can hold a 1/2 barrel (15.5 gal) keg and a 5 gal Cornelius ("Corny") keg, plus the CO2 tank (we wanted to do a minimum of drilling; hence the CO2 tank is inside the fridge, we don't mind not being able to utilize every last cm3 of gas).  There are two lines and two outside taps, complete with beautiful stainless steel drip trays.  I [heart] our local homebrew supply shop.

We decided on this DIY approach because most commercially available kegerators were $300-500.  Plus we've painted our fridge a sweet dark burgundy color.

Priorities?  Like having fresh beer on draught as opposed to what? <grin>   

[Drygioni]

Nice PKD and Chinua (SP??) Achebe.  You just earned some cans.

Everyone seems to love Things Fall Apart here, but we were forced to study it for GCSE and I hated it. And it's not just because we were made to work on it; we also did Journey's End, which I absolutely loved. I prefer Achebe's short stories, which I actually really enjoy.

[side_show]

I took was also taught Things Fall Apart in school, as part of my final year of high school English.  I liked it back then, but I'd love to read it again and see what I think of it now.

[linnea]

joughytrousers, you oughta post some of your Awesomeo coffee machine pictures here. I am soooo tempted to get one.

[Muse_Of_Fire]

Coffee. Hands down.

I have been drinking coffee every day since I was 11. My parents never drank it, but we always kept some around for company. One morning I just felt like trying it, so I made some and liked it. End of story. I am so addicted that I can't function without it. I am, however, back down to 24 oz per day. It's weird, I've been drinking it for so long and become so dependent, that I've kind of gone the other way: one travel mug's worth is enough, and I just don't want any more after that. It's very strange.

That said, if by some chance I have more, I don't really feel a reaction. Coffee no longer gives me a "buzz." I just enjoy the taste and as long as I have a certain amount of caffeine in my system, I'm good to go. Strangely, delivering the caffeine via soda or tea or something else doesn't do it. It HAS to be coffee, which leads me to believe that my dependence is to a certain degree psychological.

While I prefer good coffee, and I prefer it strong (I can enjoy it black but IMO if you can drink it without milk it's not strong enough), I will say (shamefully) that if desperate I will drink whatever kind of coffee I can get; even if from the gas station, or re-microwaved leftovers from yesterday's pot (sometimes in my desperation, the microwaving is an extra step that takes too long, and I just drink it cold). I'm none too happy about it when it happens, but shitty coffee is better than no coffee. In general, however, I find I go to great lengths to ensure that I maintain a high level of quality for my coffee consumption: picking my beans with care, grinding them fresh, measuring carefully, using spring water, etc.

And dark roast? Bah. The darker the roast, the less caffeine it has. There is a cafe near here that has a drink called the "White Tiger" which I have had ONCE. It scared me to death, I felt like I'd done a line of coke. Honestly I didn't feel like I had a good handle on my reality after drinking it. It's basically barely-roasted coffee beans, so the caffeine concentration is *extremely* high, and then they brew them espresso style (a double shot) and top it off with steamed milk. It's quite tasty, but very frightening.


I drink tea to relax. So in general when I do tea it's of the herbal variety (chamomile or rooibos) to make me sleepy before bed. I used to do formal tea parties with my girlfriends every spring, with high-quality bulk teas from a local purveyor, little sandwiches, hats and gloves, the whole bit, but recent Circumstances have thrown a wrench in that in recent years.

As to the microbes that make our life better... cheese, beer, kraut, wine... these things are delicious affirmations of life, and should not be judged because of their smell or their association with bacteria. Bravo, yogurt! Bravo, kefir! Hallelujah mead!

I'm a little nervous about trying kim chee though.


And I absolutely draw the line at that crazy Corsican maggot cheese.

[littlefallsmets]

I reiterate:

There is nothing I love more than telling people how I've been drinking coffee since I was ten and that it "stunted my growth" as I am a very large person. I love getting those stares. It's almost as good as when someone asks me for a light and I go:

"Oh, sorry, I don't smoke... TOBACCO" and then stare at them REAL intently.

I'm like a character in a Vonnegut novel, I have these five or ten lines always at the ready to unnerve people I wouldn't like and identify people I would. I just wait for the way to work them in.

Also, I am a sucker for hella overpaying at Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf for Jamaican Blue Mountain beans for special occasions. My brother/one-of-my-roommates has one of those coffee makers with the grinder in it and it grinds seconds before the brew...

Get some spring water, clean that sucker out with some wine vinegar first....

Man, it spoils you.

[theinevitable]

I think maybe the reason I don't "get" coffee is that I'm really oblivious to the effects of caffeine. I probably -do- get a buzz, but I can never tell. I only notice if I start shaking or something. I'm pretty over-energetic in general, so.
I noticed this yesterday, when I drank a cherry coke at like 3 AM. I thought I wasn't getting any benefit from it, but then I couldn't fall asleep for a long time.

Also: I have a similar problem with other Drinking. Luckily, in that case I am closer to knowing exactly how much of the Thing I have had. I know what 2 drinks does to me-- I do not know what a standard amount of caffeine does to me, if there is such a unit.

to conclude, the problem is that I normally talk too much, jump around, and get over-excited. I do not normally trip over things easily, slur words, or dance without feeling Awkward and stopping.

lfm-- that reminds me. It occurs to me that part of the reason "marijuana cigarettes" do not give you Cancer is that they don't have hell of tar/ammonia/etc.
So... do people who smoke a pipe, or "roll their own" have less of a chance of getting cancer?
To clarify, I am not planning on smoking. The smell bothers me too much.

[littlefallsmets]

Actually, as far as I understood it, marijuana smoke has MANY of the carcinogens of tobacco smoking... but the difference is two-fold.

One, assuming you're smoking unadulterated weed, there aren't at least all of the additives that are added to commerical tobacco (including pipe tobacco and so on) to up the addictive properties, to make the stuff keep, to make it look uniform and palatable to the public, etc.

And two and... probably more significantly... tobacco smokers will sometimes smoke forty cigarettes a day for years on end.

As generally pro-marijuana as I am, if you are smoking forty joints a day, every day, for years on end, you are probably gonna have problems that take you down before the big C.

[theinevitable]

yeah, I meant the additives.

Also: I read somewhere that since you hold the marijuana smokez in your lungs longer, it just straight-up kills the lung cells instead of making them all fucked up.

[littlefallsmets]

An anti-drug PSA on the radio says that people claim that weed makes you smarter because it makes your brain bigger.

I have to believe that the people who make those things are secretly pro-drug and push their agenda by making purposely cheesy anti-drug ads that Suits will think are hip... but kids will know is actually winking reverse-psychology.

Good ol' winking reverse-psychology.

The ancient "Tobacco Is Wacko If You're A Teen" trick.

[KeithHernandez]

The ancient "Tobacco Is Wacko If You're A Teen" trick.

I have a distant memory of these commercials, is that actually what it said?

Also, smoking anything is bad.  Smoking weed is better, and you don't do it as much, as already mentioned.  I smoke Natural American Spirits though, and although they have no additives they are still harsh.  Probably the harshest... well, I hand roll also, so there is no filter.  I have no beliefs that this will kill me slower, I just like them better.  Basically, I can feel cigs more than weed.  You can feel these things, which is why the generations before me "we didn't know it was bad" policy is complete bullshit.  I understand that they may have been lied to, but they were also lying to themselves.  I have been smoking cigarettes for at least 6 years now and smoke about 1 1/2 packs worth a day, basically this is the amount I have to smoke when I go to my parents (where handrolling pisses off my mom) to feel normal (not like shit).  I have tried to talk many young smokers that I know to never start (as they are starting).  I have been smoking weed for at least 5 years and would recommend it to everyone.  I have introduced many, many people to weed.  Also coke, but me and the very select group of people I introduced to it all hate it now, which is very good.  With all this said, I really, really love smoking cigarettes.  This may just be the addiction talking, but they are amazing and I have never even considered stopping.  I just don't want to stop.  Please don't make me.  But you don't start now kids.


Marijuana has like some ridiculous amount more tar than a regular cigarette (government propaganda health class taught me 16x, I think).  Also, that whole holding weed smoke in thing is a myth.  Something like 95% of possible absorption takes place instantly.  Which doesn't mean that people don't do it, just that it doesn't matter.  The reason it gets you higher is because you are getting less oxygen, just like hot boxing your car (getting high with all windows up, a.c./heat off or very low).