We believe few things in life are as satisfying as a good cup of coffee. So it should be no surprise to learn it’s one of the Things We Love here at The Flickcast.
Sure, one or two people around here drink tea occasionally, or as an alternative to coffee, but we don’t really talk to them all that much. To be honest, we consider their judgement a little suspect.
So, coffee? Yes. Please and thank you.
There’s so many ways to make coffee at home, the office or at the home office we won’t go into every one of them here. We will, however, talk about a couple of our favorite methods and some tools we think are necessary to get the caffeine fix and amazing cup of coffee you deserve.
There’s basically two methods we use on a regular basis: the Pourover or the French Press. We also, on occasion, use a more traditional coffee maker if time is a factor, but won’t go into that in this post.
First, let’s talk Pourover using the Hario V60, which is pretty much the industry standard. We could go into a lengthy explanation of how it works, what to do and all that.
Instead, let’s let World Barista Champion, author and famous YouTube star James Hoffman tell us all about it.
He makes it look easy, right? It does take some work and practice. But once you get it mastered this method creates an amazing cup of coffee.
To make this at home, the office or the home office, you’ll need a few things. Fortunately, you’ll only need to get most of these items once and they can be used for many years.
First, the V60 by Hario, which is the backbone of the entire system. You’ll also need a glass coffee server, which goes underneath the V60 and catches the coffee as it comes through.
Next, you need a way to heat and pour water. We prefer the Hario Kettle. You’ll also need paper filters, a grinder to grind the beans and, of course, some coffee.
For paper filters, we go with the ones from Hario. For a grinder, our favorite that’s seen daily use for several years and never once complained, is the Baratza Virtuoso.
Lastly, for coffee we like to buy local here in Austin from favorites such as Cuvee Coffee or Texas Coffee Traders. They also ship worldwide, but you can most likely find local roasters in your area. If you’re having trouble finding one, you can check out this map to locate a roaster near you.
Now, let’s turn to the French Press. Again, here’s James Hoffman to show you the way.
As with the Pourover, you’ll need a few things for this method as well. Of course, the French Press itself. Our current favorite is the Bodum 1928.
You’ll also need pretty much the rest of the things mentioned above for best results. But as this is a French Press you won’t need the V60 this time.
Okay. That’s how we (and James) do it. It may seem like a bit of time and trouble, but the rewards of great coffee are worth it . . . at least to us. Enjoy your coffee!
Do you love coffee as much as we do? If so, what are some of your favorite methods to make it? Let us know in the comments or hit us up on Twitter, Facebook or Instagram.
Welcome back to another edition of Things We Love. This time around we’re turning our attention to something that might seem like an odd choice given how prevalent digital technologies are these days. As you an tell from the title of this post, we’re talking, of course, about pencils.
Yes, that’s right, pencils. An artifact created in a time before iPads, iPhones, computers and most any other form of technology designed to help you create, remember things or get things done. They’re still in use today and more popular than ever. There’s even a podcast dedicated to them.
The pencil is generally credited to people such as Nicolas-Jacques Conté, who figured out how to mix graphite to mold it into a strong core, Joseph Dixon, who developed methods to mass produce pencils in the classic hexagonal shape they are known for today and Hymen Lipman, who was the first to attach an eraser to one end. According to pencil collector and expert Caroline Weaver in her TED talk about this very subject (which you can watch in its entirety below), this is a major factor in what makes the pencil special.
“. . . it’s that long history of collaboration that, to me, makes it a very perfect object.”
She makes a compelling case for the pencil during her talk and you should definitely watch the video. It’s pretty cool.
Now that we (and Ms. Weaver) have convinced you pencils are awesome, where do you go to get some for yourself? Well, we mostly go to these places:
These are just a few of our favorites and some of the places we go to get pencils. Many of these are also available at Amazon.
So, why not give the pencil a try? You just might love it as much as we do.
Do you ever use pencils or other analog tools in your daily life? If so, what are some of your favorites? Let us know in the comments or hit us up on Twitter, Facebook or Instagram.
Image: Blackwing Video: TED Note: This post contains affiliate links.
We’re starting another new series here at The Flickcast. This time around it’s all about books with the first edition of What We’re Reading. So, what are we reading? Today, it’s some helpful D&D books from author Keith Ammann.
Moving on, you can probably guess these D&D books deal with various aspects of playing Dungeons & Dragons, especially combat. The first, targeted at Dungeon Masters . . .
“. . . lightens the DM’s burden by helping you understand your monsters’ abilities and develop battle plans before your fifth edition D&D game session begins. Just as soldiers don’t whip out their field manuals for the first time when they’re already under fire, a DM shouldn’t wait until the PCs have just encountered a dozen bullywugs to figure out how they advance, fight, and retreat.”
It really helps DM’s get inside the minds and motivations of NPC’s and creatures in the game. It also makes combat encounters more realistic and fun. Sounds great, right? We’ve used it during many of our games with great success.
The second book is targeted at players and deals with their mindset and tactics during combat. It’s . . .
“. . . an introduction to combat tactics for fifth-edition Dungeons & Dragons players, Live to Tell the Tale evens the score. It examines the fundamentals of D&D battles: combat roles, party composition, attacking combos, advantage and disadvantage, Stealth and Perception, and more…including the ever-important consideration of how to run away!”
It also offers several combat scenarios featuring character and monsters of increasingly higher level. This helps to better illustrate the tactics of each character class, abilities available at various levels, what to do with them during combat and the roles each class can play to help ensure combat success. It’s pretty cool.
If you’re a D&D player, Dungeon Master (or both) and you want to improve your games, especially during combat, give these books a try. You’ll definately learn something. We sure did.
You can find these books at Amazon, or your local bookstore. We get a lot of our books at Book People, which is one of our favorite local shops here in Austin. Please support local bookstores when you can.
It’s time for another edition of What We’re Playing. This week it’s a video game you might have heard of called Minecraft. Does that ring a bell?
We’re joking, of course. Everyone’s heard of Minecraft, right? It’s only one of the most popular and successful video games of all time with 126 million players around the world. Yep, that Minecraft.
Since some of us here at The Flickcast have kids, we’ve been trying to find ways to entertain them and distract from the monotony of quarantine. Fortunately, during the last year or so, we’ve discovered Minecraft . . . and, of course, we love it! Kids and adults alike!
If for some reason you’re not familiar with Minecraft, here’s a bit of info about the game from the Official Minecraft Wiki:
“Minecraft is a sandbox construction game created by Mojang Studios founder Markus “Notch” Persson, inspired by Infiniminer, Dwarf Fortress, Dungeon Keeper, and Notch’s past games Legend of the Chambered and RubyDung. Gameplay involves players interacting with the game world by placing and breaking various types of blocks in a three-dimensional environment. In this environment, players can build creative structures, creations, and artwork on multiplayer servers and singleplayer worlds across multiple game modes.”
We mostly play in “Creative” mode where you build amazing structures and contraptions out of various blocks in the game. However, if you’re looking for more of a challenge, switch to “Survival” mode where you’re forced to find or grow food, build shelters and fight off hordes of monsters including spiders, skeletons and zombies. Whatever you choose, it’s all fun . . . and you just might learn something too.
Time to kick off another new feature here at The Flickcast. This one is called What We’re Watching. You can probably guess what it’s gonna be about: movies, TV shows and other things we’re watching.
Not that hard to figure out, right? Good. Moving on.
For the first installment we go international with South Korean sci-fi/action film Space Sweepers. Part Star Wars, part Guardians of the Galaxy, this space epic features a rag-tag group of reluctant heroes who struggle against an oppressive corporation with less than benevolent motives.
They also fight to keep an adorable little girl safe because she just might be the key to the future survival of the human race. No pressure, though.
The movie boasts some impressive visual effects, captivating performances, heartfelt emotions and an international cast of actors including Song Joong-ki, Kim Tae-ri, Jin Seon-kyu, Yoo Hae-jin and Richard Armitage, of Hobbit fame, as the Elon Musk-ish tech billionaire who’s going to save humanity. Maybe. It’s written by Yoon Seung-min, Yoo-kang Seo-ae and Jo Sung-hee, who is also the director.
It’s really quite a fun ride and takes time to develop the characters so that you care about what happens to them. And yes, lots of stuff blows up too. We really enjoyed it. You might too. Give it a watch.
Until then, check out the trailer below. Space Sweepers is on Netflix right now.
Being at home during a pandemic forced us to find new ways to entertain ourselves. One of the ways that’s worked best for us is playing games online. So, in that spirit, we’re kicking off a new series at The Flickcast called What We’re Playing.
Each week we’ll highlight a game we’re playing at home. For the first installment of What We’re Playing, we turn to an old favorite: Dungeons & Dragons.
D&D was created by Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson and first published in 1974. Since then its popularity grew considerably. Even with a slump in the late 80s and early 90s, D&D is still played by millions of people around the world. That popularity has exploded even more during the last year or two. You can probably guess why.
If you’re not familiar, or have never played, you may wonder “What’s D&D?” For that we turn to Wizards of the Coast, the company who publishes the game. From their official D&D website:
“The core of D&D is storytelling. You and your friends tell a story together, guiding your heroes through quests for treasure, battles with deadly foes, daring rescues, courtly intrigue, and much more.”
Sounds fun, right? Traditionally, D&D is played by a group of friends sitting together at a table. One person is the Dungeon Master, or DM. This person creates and runs the game, spins tales of adventure, plays all non-player characters (or NPCs) and generally is the go-to for all rules and what happens during the campaign.
The players (not the DM) create characters of their own and rollplay them during the game. You can choose from a variety of character occupations including fighter, ranger, rogue or wizard and races such as human, elf, dwarf or halfling. Then, once characters are created, players explore dungeons or ancient ruins, interact with NPCs and creatures like Orcs or Giants and even, yes, fight an actual dragon.
That’s how it’s usually done . . with everyone together around a table. But what if getting together isn’t possible?
As you’ve seen there’s been a bunch of new episodes of The Flickcast over the last few months. We’re thrilled to bring the podcast back to you and we look forward to doing it for a long time to come.
But what about this website? Well, good news (we think, at least) the site is coming back too. That’s right, look for more content dropping here shortly. We’re getting things ready behind-the-scenes, but hope to have some stuff ready to go for you soon.
We’re talking, of course, about articles, reviews, tutorials, news, videos and more. All the stuff you used to come here for. Going forward, our coverage will be a bit different than what we did before, though.
We’ll keep talking about movies, television and all that good stuff, but we’re also going to expand into other areas of pop culture like books, music, streaming, technology, tabletop RPGs and much more.
Pretty much anything nerds are playing, watching and enjoying these days will be fair game. It’s gonna be fun. We hope you’ll join us and enjoy!
Until then, look for a brand new episode of The Flickcast every Monday at 9AM Central Time. Thanks and we’ll see you soon.
That’s right. The mega gaming franchise Call of Duty is going back to the beginning. Well, to the 1940’s to be exact with the newly released trailer for Call of Duty: World War II.
Here’s some more info from the official press release: “Over two years in the making, Sledgehammer Games delivers a gritty, personal experience in the setting of the largest worldwide conflict in history to a new gaming generation in Call of Duty: WWII.
Play through the story of ordinary men turned soldiers in the 1st Infantry Division as they fight to preserve freedom in the face of tyranny.”
We’re in. Check out the trailer after the break. Call of Duty: World War II hits the beaches (and stores) on November 3rd.
With all the uncertainty in the world, at least there’s one thing we can pretty much always count on: new Call of Duty games. The latest one is called Call of Duty: Black Ops III.
This new chapter in the franchise takes place in “a dark, gritty future where a new breed of Black Ops soldier emerges and the lines are blurred between our own humanity and the cutting-edge military robotics that define the future of combat.” That does sound cool.
Judge for yourself by watching the first trailer for the game, which has just been released. Look for Call of Duty: Black Ops III to arrive on November 9.
On January 24, 1984 the first Macintosh computer from Apple was launched. And the world was never the same again.
Regardless of your personal feelings towards Apple or its products, there’s no denying the company changed the personal computer world forever with the introduction of the Macintosh. And in the 30 years since, many of us here at The Flickcast (and elsewhere to be sure) couldn’t imagine going through our day, or getting work done, without one.
To commemorate this milestone, Apple has a special home page on its website and a video to celebrate “30 years of Mac innovation.” The company has also created a special section on its website dedicated to the 30 years of Mac.
On one of the many pages at Apple’s website dedicated to the Mac, there’s a quote from Steve Jobs which helps set the stage and encapsulates fully the lasting legacy that is the Mac.
“We’re just in the beginning stages of what will be a truly remarkable breakthrough for most people — as remarkable as the telephone,” said Jobs.
How right he was. Check out the video after the break. Happy 30th Mac!
It’s time for another edition of What We’re Playing. This week it’s a video game you might have heard of called Minecraft. Does that ring a bell?
