My Wet Coast Life

After the lack luster first weekend of July is over and Mother Nature still not giving us a summer to remember. After a not so great June-uary, I seem to be rusting instead of tanning. Looking outside at another overcast day and temperature sitting around 15°C, I look east to Ontario and Quebec who are currently experiencing a hot, humid and smoggy heat wave. Now living on the wet coast, we tend to always get cooler weather compared to the B.C. interior and prairies mainly due to cool ocean breezes keeping us in check. But every so often the wind dies down and we get the nice hot weather and looks like that is coming in 1 day for us.
Now I prefer love the hot weather. Due to my lack of insulation, you can still find me wearing pants or layers in 20°C+ weather when others are sweating and pealing off all their clothes. So i decide to go check our weather and see if the weather is gonna get any warmer and sunnier.

To my surprise, it looks like we are about to get our first heat wave of 2010! WooHoo! Both Environment Canada and Weather Network show the heat is on the way!
After calming down from the shear excitement that the sun will be out and the temperatures nice and warm, I realized I live in Rain-couver where people loooove to complain about the weather. Whether it is raining too much or not enough, someone has to be a weather hater. As for me, my body works like a human barometer and whenever the weather is inclement, my body hurts. I can now somewhat accurately predict weather based on pain and its location. Now why do I mention this?? Well sun and high heat tend to be the only times I do not hurt which means little to no pain medication for my bad back = Win.

Now for my unfortunate family and friends who tend to “die” when the temperature goes over 25°, fear not for i have put together some tips and tricks to beat and deal with the gorgeous tropical weather on the way.

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So as a Canadian, one of our rights is a double, double. Now if you don't know what that is, it is 2 cream and 2 sugar in a Tim Horton's large coffee. None of this grande, venti terms, just a double, double please....

Why do i bring that up you ask? Well, it looks like our Canadian coffee super power has its limit to complainers too. Timmy's has taken the extent of banning a customer for complaining the decaf tastes burnt. It looks like Timmy's has applied California's "3 strikes and you're out" rule to its customers.

After complaining three times about "burnt" decaffeinated coffee at the local Tim Hortons, Jimmy Craig is now banned for life from that outlet and the one in nearby St. Stephen.

What ever happened to the customer is always right? I guess it can be re-worded to "The customer is always right unless you complain 3 times...then you're wrong"

Now i am not one for decaf as i look at it defeats one of the reasons we drink it but to each his own cup. But what I do hate it when i order a coffee from anywhere, add my cream and sugar (if they don't do it for me), only to take the first sip of the liquid wake up juice and give my taste buds an onslaught of burnt coffee taste. Blah! If i am close enough to the location i got it from, i will return and advise them i didn't order the burnt flavor of the day and to brew me up some coffee flavored coffee.

Now the fact Jimmy Craig got to meet the local owner of Tim Horton's, only to get served with letter banning him under the New Brunswick's trespass act, makes you wonder why some subordinate minion didn't do it?
Why did they take this step you ask? They claim Jimmy Craig was upsetting his staff and he was tired of his complaints, so he banned him. What ever happened to "He might have a valid point, has anyone else complained?" or "If he is willing to complain this frequently, maybe there is an issue with the coffee, maybe just at that location?"

They do allow Jimmy Craig to return to the Tim Hortons only if he's on the job as a paramedic, responding to a medical emergency. WTF?? If he is responding to an emergency, i doubt he has time to get in line for a decaf double, double. Secondly, what's the difference when he is on the job or not? Does this mean paramedics have a higher standard then the rest of us? To me a ban is a ban, not a partial ban with rules such as you can come be a customer "only when the sky is blue, the grass is green and religion causes no more wars or meaningless deaths...."

How are you gonna enforce it Timmys? Call the police and say he is trespassing because he doesn't have his paramedics uniform on? If so, then he just has to wear it to get his coffee and the ban is now pointless.

Now Timmy Ho's, is that how you handle your customers who bring up a valid point on a companies product or service? I bet anyone reading this article has taken back the french fries to MacDonalds when they get put on your tray stale, cold and cardboard like! Now if MacDonalds took the same tactic, i would have been banned years ago for those greasy spud goodness (BTW, I want to be a French Frie Sommelier) and so would a lot of other people.

Well, you probably have gotten the wrong media attention you were looking for Timmy's and now the spotlight is on you. Maybe we can get Facebook involved and create a "1,000,000 people against burnt Timmy's coffee" and see if it actually is an issue? I know Starbucks is the king on the wet coast for coffee and also gets the crown for the "worst and most frequent burnt coffee" award, IMO. The funny thing, is your website states the following:

Tim Hortons coffee is a premium blend of 100% Arabica coffee beans, with absolutely no additives. The "Always Fresh" policy of brewing fresh coffee every 20 minutes guarantees our customers coffee with the best flavor and aroma possible.

Based on this, i have every right to complain as you guarantee it!

Now from a different point of view, why did Jimmy keep coming back? If the coffee tasted like crap consistently, there has to be other locations of Timmy's he could have gone to or just switch to a different coffee company like Seattle's Best? As For Timmy's, they don't make the best coffee around but rather disguise above average coffee with high cream content so the taste is hidden in the 20%+ creaminess...

So Timmy's, think again before you go after your bread and butter customers who support you and turn up your hearing aid and deal with the issue/complaint instead of banning the outspoken one and crushing the burnt coffee revolution! I still drink your coffee but even myself have found it burnt some days and taken it back and gotten a fresh cup. Are you gonna ban me to now that you know I've complained at your establishments for the same reason?

Have you even taken back a coffee because it was burnt or fowl tasting? Do you think Timmy's was right in banning the customer for complaining too much?

Link: http://fluid.media.mit.edu/projects.php?action=details&id=79

I came across this article today on MIT's new Food Printer, Cornucopia, a Digital Gastronomy machine and the implications could be enormous. This machine allows you to print complex foods and have them cooked or cooled during the process. The project is called Cornucopia and it is a concept design for a personal food factory that brings the versatility of the digital world to the realm of cooking.

On the top of the machine is an array of canisters which will store your ingredients and will be dispensed as required based on what you are cooking, i mean printing...

This fabrication process not only allows for the creation of flavors and textures that would be completely unimaginable through other cooking techniques, but it also allows the user to have ultimate control over the origin, quality, nutritional value and taste of every meal.

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Link: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/healthnews/6874884/Alcohol-substitute-that-avoids-drunkenness-and-hangovers-in-development.html

Today i saw an article on an alternative alcohol substitute. They claim that it simulates all the good things about having a drink without the side effects of mood swings, drunkenness and hangovers. They claim to also have an antidote to make you sober again instantaneously with just a pill.

Now before i dive into the pro's and con's of such a technology, let's take a look at other things that have aided the alcoholics of the world to circumvent the drawbacks to drinking.

Let's start off with Powdered Alcohol, just add water. This just makes alcohol more easily accessible and concealable to youth (why would an adult need to hide it?) and by-passes certain laws to cater to the impressionable, mold-able youth. I guess it's the "get them hooked when they're young" ideology. I guess you will soon be able to pick up your favorite drink next to the flour and sugar in the grocery store.

Then we move on to alcohol in pill form, which would allow people to calculate their exact required dosage. But anyone i know that has had a few, has also lost count or can't be bothered any to remember, so there goes that marketing tactic. Now someone can pop a handful of vodka pills and voila, instantly tanked and on the road to alcohol poisoning and doesn't smell of liquor. This will change roadblocks as there goes the smell of alcohol in the car so i expect a lot more questions such as "Did you consume any alcoholic drinks or pills tonight?....".

But there is a light at the end of the tunnel and it is not a train. Now that we have new ways to more easily become an alcoholic, we also have a pill to fight alcoholism. Now this is helpful science, it is reducing the number of alcoholics, not increasing it. But the fact we needed to go to the extent of making a medication to fight it....

Now lets go back to the article on an alternative alcohol substitute. This could help save a lot of people by allowing alcoholics, or just anyone who's had one too many, to become inebriated when they need to, but then sober again when the situation also arises...

Now an issue i can see with this is the good ol' drunk drivers. Now they have a mechanism to get completely tanked, get behind the wheel, do the damage and before the cops show, pop the pill and VOILA instant sobriety and avoidance of a DUI charge. Plus there would be little evidence, if not any. Yet again, they will then develop a test to find that, but that would be to late anyways. My friend was recently killed by a drunk driver. The drunk driver was able to get out and try and assist her but after realizing he was in over his head, fled the scene and now denies being drunk too (Karma can deal with him). Court case starts soon for that .

Plus, what kind of society will we be creating when you can go get completely tanked on your break and come back sober an hour later? The reason more don't drink or drink heavily is due to hangovers and the lasting effects of those drinks. Now i am not against drinking but i am against drunk drivers and idiots who blame alcohol for their misguidance and now creating easier means for them to access that stupidity.

I guess in the end we will have pills to create the problems, pills to make the problems more easily accessible and then pills to fix the problems. Not that we already don't for other things...

What do you think of this? Should science be wasted inventing these kind of pills and meds when there are far better things they could be working on?
please leave any comments, suggestions or opinions.

Link: http://www.reuters.com/article/oddlyEnoughNews/idUSTRE5195I920090210

Say what now? A French Frie Sommelier? Yup, thanks to researchers in England, they have dissected the aroma of a french frie to find out why they are so irresistible. At least for me, they are a staple when traveling as all countries make them and only Wimpy Burgers in South Africa has been able to screw up french fries (very soggy and not much taste).

When you think of french fries, does aromas of bitter cocoa, butterscotch, cheese, earthy potatoes, onions, flowers...and would you believe ...ironing boards come to mind? Well that's what they found. It kinda sounds like a good wine...except for the ironing board...mine smells of starch

If they ever do offer a course as a French Frie Sommelier, I'll sign up just to say i can professionally diagnose a french frie's aromas. I just hope we don't see vintage french fries or potatoes coming out and people saying potatoes from '91 and '98 were good years and '02 and '05 were bad, for example of course. I guess Ebay can add a new category: potatoes by year