Archive for the ‘Offbeat’ Category
-
Sunday, December 6th, 2009
“We Are Happy To Serve You” — Ceramic Cup
I’ve been using this cup for the past week and it puts a smile on my face each time I use it. If you have ever been to NYC you know exactly what this cup is about. If not, you can read up about it here. It’s considered the world’s most famous paper cup and it’s now been replicated in ceramic complete with details you’d see in the paper cup version (seam and lip overlay). Not much else to say about it other than it holds 10 ounces of liquid, is manufactured of lead-free earthenware and is microwave and dishwasher safe. A single cup retails for about $12.
– AMAZON.com - “We are Happy to Serve You” Ceramic Cup
-
Wednesday, September 16th, 2009
Kurt Systems: High-Tech Horse Trainer
I was reading the latest issue of POPULAR SCIENCE and saw this new high-tech horse training system developed by a Turkish man. The story behind this invention is that Mehmet Kurt developed this device after his own horse died from overtraining and human error. The solution was to build a $427,000 training machine which monitors the horses vitals while training and maximize the speed and fitness of the horse. Pretty cool concept!
-
Wednesday, August 26th, 2009
No, I am not Tropical Storm Danny!
You can follow and track Tropical Storm Danny live using this cool Google Maps based viewer @ ABC13.com KTRK Houston.
-
Friday, June 5th, 2009
American Waste: The Story Of A Home Depot / Thomasville Outdoor Patio Set That Came Damaged
We just took delivery of an outdoor patio set which we love except for one little part came defective. The seat frame (“Part C”) came split as shown in the photo. As I’m a DIYer, I would typically try to repair something like this, however, since it is A) an expensive item B) a product that will be used outdoors and in weather C) the wood is split and shattered… the repair I make wouldn’t last. So I went with getting the product replaced. I thought it would be any easy replacement item and called up HomeDepot.com and told them I needed either a whole new seat, or if possible, just the replacement part – “Part C”. The customer service agent told me he could get me a replacement part and said he sent the request for the new part onto the vendor.
The issue is that the replacement part could take up to 3 weeks to get AND no one can guarantee that the part will even arrive in 3 weeks as it depended on this unknown vendor (apparently it’s a tightly held secret as to who the vendor is… even Thomasville said the same thing and they are the ones with their name on the product!). The customer service agent has no way of getting a hold of the vendor directly besides through “email”. The boxes say the set is made in Vietnam so does that mean the vendor is located there too? Do they only have one-way email? Who knows? I said fine and he placed the order and that was that. I thought about it last night and realized that a few weeks will bring us into the prime of summer and since no firm date was given, it was not sitting right with me. Heck, it could take months to get the replacement for all I know. So I called up Home Depot again today and asked them if there was any status or if they could find out the status. They checked and said the “email is still in the process of being uploaded into the system”. How can that be? Are they running on 300 baud modems and sending terrabytes worth of data each day to warrant an email still in the process of being uploaded to the system? When I send an email, it is sent instantaneously. That got me a bit fired up……
-
Friday, May 29th, 2009
Dry Soda Co. – Cucumber Soda
So I was a bit late to the game earlier this week when I blogged about the Vanilla Bean and Juniper Berry as being Dry Soda’s newest flavors. Today I got the chance to taste Dry Soda’s real newest flavor, Cucumber. Right here, right now, I’m proclaiming that the Dry Soda Co.’s Cucumber Soda, is my 2009 Summer beverage of choice. This years contenders were Pepsi Natural and Dry Soda’s Vanilla Bean. There is something about this flavor that I really dig… it’s not too sweet or fake tasting. Just for fun, I paired the soda with a persian cucumber (which I eat as snacks) and the taste was identical (at least to my palette).
So, if you are like me, someone that loves cucumbers, and eats them like candy, then you’ll love the new Cucumber Soda from Dry Soda Co. I also hear you can make some pretty good cocktails with it… can’t wait to try those out.
Official Press Release - INTRODUCING CUCUMBER DRY SODA
-
Wednesday, May 27th, 2009
Dry Soda Co. – New Flavor, Vanilla Bean!
I’ve enjoyed Dry Soda Co. pretty much since their beginnings back in 2005. Recently, while I was at Whole Foods purchasing supplies for the beverage center, I noticed that Dry Soda released two new flavors, Vanilla Bean and Juniper Berry. Both are excellent, however, the Vanilla Bean flavor will really suit EVERYONE’S taste buds. Now the complete line of Dry Soda Co. flavors include KUMQUAT, LAVENDER, LEMONGRASS, RHUBARB, VANILLA BEAN and JUNIPER BERRY. If you see these in your local Starbucks (I’ve seen them carried here in Seattle stores) or super market, expand you palette and try one or all of these flavors!
UPDATE: Apparently, I’ve been a little late to the party as a new Cucumber flavor has been released! Can’t wait to try that one, my wife and I love cucumber water, so this must be even better!
-
Tuesday, May 5th, 2009
Pepsi Natural & Mexican Coca-Cola (Coke)
I don’t drink much cola these days, my beverage of choice for the last year has been straight tea — I drink about 4-5 cups of it a day. However, when I do drink cola it has to meet some criteria. The soda needs to be the kind without High-fructose corn syrup (HFCS) and in glass bottles. To my delight, while picking up my supply of mangos from Costco, I saw that Pepsi has released a new drink called, “Pepsi Natural“. This all natural cola is made with sparkling water, sugar and kola nut extract! I just popped open a bottle and it actually takes pretty, pretty, good!
Now, when guests come over to the Grouse, they can have their pickings of Mexican Coke, Pepsi Natural, Dry Soda, and S. Pellegrino all in glass bottles which are recycled after consumption — now if only we could get the bottles refilled!?
-
Monday, May 4th, 2009
POLL: Has The Economy Affected You?
I just installed a new poll system and thought I’d run a poll to gauge how the current state of the economy has affected readers of Mavromatic. If there isn’t a poll answer that best fits, enter it in the comments.
Loading …
-
Wednesday, February 20th, 2008
City Boy Starts Farmin’ — Farm Automation?
I’ve been known to joke about getting out of technology and start a farm. But joking wasn’t my buddy Ron — you might know him from the Ron & Don Show on 710 Kiro News Radio — he’s actually bought some land (9.4 acres of it) in Maple Valley, WA and is building himself a farm. He started a blog chronicling his adventures so we can all live vicariously through him. His latest post is on building a horse shelter.
I’ll try to get him to automate the farm… Ron, how ’bout some security cameras, automated gates, egg sensors, proximity sensors, or GPS on livestock for realtime tracking?
- City Boy Starts Farmin’ [blogspot]
-
Wednesday, January 16th, 2008
Best Fruit On The Planet?
Mangos! Ever since our Honeymoon to Brazil, my wife and I have developed an intense love for mangos — we’d eat them every morning. In the summertime, we try to eat them daily but they are hard to find at times and the prices are all over the board. However, last week I found out that our local Costco carries them in nine packs so I went bonkers and stocked up (total of 27 mangos). We’ve been eating mangos everyday for weeks! The tool that makes eating them quick and easy (’cause we all know it’s a pain to cut mangos) is made by OXO. Their Mango Splitter is one of the best kitchen tools I have ever used and a must for mango eaters. At $12 it’s a no brainer… get your very own OXO Mango Splitter
from Amazon.com now and stock up on mangos from Costco!
About the archives
Welcome to the archives here at MAVROMATIC.
These are a collection of our previous posts. If you'd like to read about the latest and greatest, click here.
Welcome to mavromatic! My goal is to bring to your attention the latest DIY projects, the greatest home automation and home theater products. As well as, the occasional offbeat entry, to spice things up a bit.
