Signature Select Breakfast Blend:  A departure from some of the more specialized mail-order coffees that I usually review.  This one is straight off the shelf at Safeway.   I’m looking for a good fallback that I can find anywhere, anytime.  It’s definitely a blend.  The color of the beans is not uniform; there are a … Continue reading SMLR, 03 May

Allegro Coffee Costa Rica Las Lomas:   Available from Whole Foods, from the same line as the Allegro Breakfast blend which I reviewed earlier.   The Las Lomas starts out with a burnt toast flavor, and if I were to go a step further, I’d say specifically wheat toast.  Then the flavor dissipates into the … Continue reading SMLR, 12 Apr

SMLR 29 Mar This morning I’m drinking Thanksgiving’s Ethiopia Halo Bariti coffee.   Tastes earthy with some prune-like flavor.   There’s lemon in there somewhere too if you let it sit in your mouth for a bit.   I know I sound ridiculous. // How much awareness and investment should you put towards things outside … Continue reading SMLR, 29 Mar

This morning I’m drinking Thanksgiving Coffee’s Nicaragua Light Roast.   I just got a shipment of three different types of Thanksgiving light roasts in the mail yesterday, I was like a little kid on Xmas morning. After drinking mostly Allegro coffees for several months now, this Nicaragua light roast really jumped out at me at … Continue reading SMLR, 22 Mar

This morning I’m drinking Allegro Organic Breakfast Blend - Light Roast.   A pleasant cup, I will say that it is relatively indistinct..... the “gray man” in a room full of light roasts.   It’s good, available at Whole Foods, and gets the day going.  Maybe my coffee pallet - like my writing - has lost … Continue reading SMLR Reboot: 15 Mar

I heard about this book from a girl that is on one of the local sports teams I practice with.  She said that it and Shantaram were her two favorite books about India.  Having just finished Shantaram, I added it to my ‘to-read’ list, and then stumbled across a copy on the loaner bookshelf at … Continue reading Book review: The White Tiger

  When a book is recommended to me by several people, independent of each other, I take notice.  Such was the case with Shantaram, by Gregory Roberts.   The seed having been planted, I found a copy on the loaner bookshelf at work and dove in, not really knowing what it was about other than what … Continue reading Book review: Shantaram

Why I read it: Recommended to me originally by a boss/mentor about 9 years ago.  I bought a copy shortly thereafter but it sat on the shelf for many years.  Then back in August, someone else - someone very well read on Afghanistan-Pakistan-India history and geopolitics - said it was the best book he had … Continue reading Book review: Soldier Sahibs

I recently read two good books by Japanese-English author Kazuo Ishiguro.   The first was “Remains of the Day,” (which I’ll abbreviate as RoD) first published in 1989.   This is a first person narrative of an aging butler in England who looks back and reflects on his life and career.  The second one is … Continue reading Two books by Ishiguro

This post will be kind of “loose,” written mostly stream of consciousness while I sat near the Ganges in Topovan.  I’m trying to break myself of the tendency to want to over-edit these posts.  This was the intent when I started SMLR last year, but I drifted from this intent, and after a while I … Continue reading Tapovan