K-Squared Ramblings

Coffee Saving Time

Since the time change, coffee has been running out an hour earlier. Coincidence? #

All it Needs is an iPod

Seriously: this Starbucks VIA stand-up looks like it could use an iPod #

Venti Schmenti

So what do you think…

Would it be a bad idea to bring this travel mug to Starbucks? #

(On another note, the sound of gardening tools outside the office is blending with the computer fans for really weird harmonics. #)

Coffee & Crowds

• You know you need coffee when: you put a filter in the coffee maker, then go back to get…a filter for the coffee maker. #
• It gets better: after that I went to put the bag of coffee back in the fridge. Where I’ve never kept coffee. Ever. Batting 1000 today. #
• Mall is a lot more crowded than Wed. Sure, it’s Friday, but also I think schools let out yesterday. Waiting in line this time at Jamba #

Coffee Cliché

Realized I’m doing the cliche coffee+laptop+wifi thing…except I’m at home with coffee I brewed myself and using my own network. #

Coffee and Chocolate

• 1 mug coffee = 14 mugs hot chocolate (or 28 with my mug) CNN on caffeine withdrawal #
• Have become chocolate snob. Walked into break room looking for chocolate and couldn’t bring myself to grab a Hershey bar. Ehh, just as well. #

B5, Kean Coffee, Flu and Chess

• Went to Kean Coffee (new place by founder of Diedrich). Very good. The place was packed. Starbucks never knew what to do w/that location. #
• Single-shot flu vaccines (instead of yearly) may be coming if this discovery pans out. (via @BadAstronomer) #
• JMS’s original notes for what became Babylon 5. #
• Listening to Chess. Only 1 year before Les Miserables, but sounds so much more dated because it was done in a 1980s pop rock style. #

Line Items: Vote Earth, Chains, BSG

• Interesting: #voteearth = switch your lights off for one hour on 3/28 to promote action on global warming voteearth2009.org #
• Always funny when a coffee (or any) chain has 35 locations in SoCal, 3 or 4 in nearby states, and one in, say, Riyadh: Kelly’s Coffee #
• Finally caught up on Battlestar Galactica! And only two days before the finale! #

No More Diedrich

Diedrich Coffee’s website no longer has a store locator. It’s all online ordering. %^*! Starbucks. #

On another note, saw a great misspelling in search terms: “synapses” for “synopsis” #

San Diego Weekend

We went to San Diego this weekend for a company event. The drive down on Saturday was quite nice — much faster than any of the times we’ve driven down for Comic-Con, for instance. It took us only an hour and 20 minutes to get to Old Town San Diego, and that was with taking the wrong exit and driving two miles inland just to be able to cross the river.

We had lunch at El Fandango in Old Town, then wandered around the shops for a bit. By now we’ve seen most of the exhibits and museums. But the San Diego House of Coffee and Tea is a must-visit stop, if for no other reason than to pick up some Highlander Grog. We also grabbed some hot coffee to walk around with, since it was gloomy with occasional drizzling. (I later noticed a sign in the Gaslamp area that said “Umbrellas $9.95. When Raining, $19.95.)

They had set up period tents and wagons around the grounds, mostly in the courtyard with the flagpole made from the ship’s mast. One of the shops we visited was the mineral & gemstone store, which I’ve always liked visiting even back when I was a kid. And right up front, they had the hugest trilobite fossil I’d ever seen, around a foot long.

After a few hours, we drove into downtown San Diego and checked into the Omni Hotel. I’d never stayed there before, but it’s highly sought-after among attendees at Comic-Con because it’s right across the street from the convention center. Our room had a view of the end of the convention center, which will shed a little light on the size of the crowds. Read the rest of this entry »

Changelings and Vampires and Smurfs. Oh, My!

• Wow… Kenneth Turan really liked Changeling. Yay JMS! #
• Trying out LoudTwitter to send daily digests to LJ. (Thanks, andrea_wot!) #
• Announcement over phone system: “There are cupcakes in the lunch room.” 2 seconds later, loud footsteps running down the hall. #
• Smurfs are 50 years old? WTF! I thought they were creations of the 80s! #
• Public Service Announcement: it’s “for all INTENTS AND purposes,” not “for all INTENSIVE purposes.” “intensive” doesn’t even make any sense. #
• Saw “Let the Right One In.” Less horror, more twisted revenge fantasy/coming of age movie. With vampires. #
• Also: the Diedrich Coffee across from UCI is now a Peet’s #

Starbucks Overreaching (and Java)

A couple of years ago, Starbucks bought all 30 or so company-owned Diedrich Coffee stores.  There were a couple of franchise locations (well, kiosks, really) in Orange County, and one of the Texas stores, but that was it.  Most of them were converted or shut down, with only two keeping the Diedrich name and menu (both in Irvine, oddly enough).  The one across from UCI eventually got converted.

The Diedrich nearest where we live was always busy.  After it had been assimilated, though, we never saw it full.  People didn’t go there just because of the location, they went there because it was a Diedrich.

Now it’s on the list of stores that Starbucks is closing, along with a newer one that opened about a quarter-mile away.  (They haven’t updated the web page yet, but it’s on the PDF.)

In essense, Starbucks bought an (apparently) successful business and ran it into the ground.  I really hate when that happens.

Obviously the place, when it was a Diedrich, wasn’t taking money that would have gone to Starbucks, since their customers didn’t stick around when it was converted.  And the one store that does still have the Diedrich name and menu always has customers whenever I end up in the area — so it’s not just people avoiding the parent company. It’s people who don’t like the Starbucks coffee and atmosphere.  (And possibly the name.)

I have to wonder how that other store would have done if they’d kept it intact instead of homogenizing it.

On a completely different note: It’s really annoying that the security updater for Java is trying to install the Yahoo Toolbar.

College Essentials

College Essentials, originally uploaded by Kelson.

Let’s see… coffee mugs, latte mugs, travel mugs… yep, that’s everything you need for college! (Found at Target earlier this week.)

Easy Office Environmental Tip: The Disposable Cup

If you work in an office, chances are there’s a water cooler somewhere. And if there’s a water cooler, chances are there’s a stack of disposable paper cups (or possibly, even in this age, styrofoam). And chances are that most people will walk up, grab a paper cup, take it back to their desk and then throw it away.

Of course, all those paper cups end up in a landfill somewhere. And there’s the material to manufacture them (even if it’s recycled). And there’s the energy that went into manufacturing them.

So why not reuse that paper cup if you’re only using it for water? It’ll dry out between uses, so the water shouldn’t seep through the wax. If you have, say, one glass of water a day, and you use the same cup for a week, you’re cutting down your paper cup usage by 80%.

Or better yet: do you have a coffee mug? You need to wash it out anyway before you put more coffee in (unless you’re keeping it full all day long). Why not wash it out earlier, and use the mug when you want some water?

Sure, it’s less convenient than walking past the lunch room and grabbing a new paper cup. But let’s face it: you work in an office. And Americans, on the whole, don’t get enough exercise. You might as well take advantage of the extra activity for some incidental exercise.

Full-Spectrum Coffee

Between cash, lunch and an errand, I walked the full length of the Irvine Spectrum today, and realized there will soon be 7 coffee shops in or near the shopping center—and 4 of them are Starbucks.

It opened with just one: a Diedrich Coffee, attached to Barnes & Noble.

Phase 2 (from the movie theaters to the carousel) added a Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf.

Phase 3 (from the carousel to the ferris wheel) doubled the number, adding a Kelly’s Coffee & Fudge, and a Starbucks inside Barnes & Noble, which moved into the new section.

Somewhere around then the Diedrich closed. Without the bookstore traffic, it was off in a corner where only people going to restaurants would see it.

Then they put in a Nordstrom, with a Nordstrom e-Bar.

Then they extended the mall past the Nordstrom, put a Target at the end, and put a Starbucks in the Target.

Then they built an apartment complex across the street, and put a Starbucks in the apartment complex.

Now they’ve gone back to the first section, adding a new row of shops in front of the movie theater. And they’re filling in a corner long left vacant…with another Starbucks.