April 2, 2009 by Dan Graham
I can’t stand looking at those chocolate posts anymore! It fills me with guilt for not posting in such a long time. Is that supposed to happen? At what point do our computer lives start giving us real life guilt? It’s supposed to be a release from that sort of stress, not a trap that brings more.
I think that the real reason I haven’t posted anything has something to do with the Tyranny of Choice — too many things I COULD write about and so I write about nothing. It’s like that psych experiment where they asked one group to make a list of things that were white for 30 seconds and they got about 10 on average. Then they asked the second group to write a list of things that were white in their bathroom and the average jumped to 25. Obviously you see where I’m going, I’m going to start blogging about things in my bathroom!
I am much better about updating my Reading List as it has a set purpose.
At any rate, I’ll work on it…
Posted in General | Tagged blogger block, bloggers cramp, no updates, suck at writing, who are you to judge me??? | 1 Comment »
February 2, 2009 by Dan Graham
While I’m on the subject of chocolate, if you haven’t been to Viva Chocolato yet, you definitely need to go. Delicious truffles combined with a great atmosphere at the Domain makes it a great stop after dining, or (as I have done many times) a great place for an afternoon snack.
Locally owned by Nino DeFalcis (if you haven’t met him, he’s a terrific guy and passionate about his business and chocolate) and Mark Adams, Viva Chocolato pulls chocolates from a variety of sources (both domestic and abroad).
I can’t recommend it enough — in fact, I think I may have just changed my lunch plans. I wish there were more chocolate shops around town like Viva Chocolato, maybe they will open more store front locations soon???
Posted in Uncategorized | 1 Comment »
February 1, 2009 by Dan Graham
You probably haven’t heard much about local companies making the chocolate, but you’ll soon hear about Brad Payton. He has just opened up his own kitchen and shop and is now making his delicious chocolate available online at Payton Artisan Chocolates
Last night he had an open house and tasting with everything from Champagne truffles, cherry, peppermint and smore truffles to chocolate covered strawberries. It was FANTASTIC! I can’t recommend it enough. I have had chocolatier chocolate before, but Brad is amazing and has a true gift.
With Valentines day just around the corner, I will definitely be making my share of purchases this week from his new website, and would recommend you do the same. There’s no comparison with standard store-bought assortment boxes.
Posted in Austin, Business | Tagged austin chocolate, austin chocolate shop, austin truffles, round rock chocolate, viva chocolato | Leave a Comment »
January 15, 2009 by Dan Graham
I’m finishing up a trip to Vail (flight leaves tomorrow afternoon) and it’s been a great time – lots of sleeping, eating and skiing. I’ve been to Vail many times before, but this year Vail has something new; implanted in each one of its lift passes is an RFID chip.
When I saw the sign, I thought “Great! This means lines will be faster and they won’t have to have people standing there scanning your ticket! But how will they stop people who are cheating?” Any ideas?
The simple, and somewhat depressing, answer is that they don’t actual use it the way you’d expect. They still still have someone standing there scanning your badge and they still manually check every skier. So what’s the point? I’m not exactly sure — the only difference I can tell is that if you have the badge, you don’t have to unzip your jacket if you have it under your coat. I guess that saves them time…?
If there is a significant enough cost savings to make it worthwhile to install RFIDs into all the badges (saving unzipping time) then surely they could come up with an unmanned process that would save all that labor cost. Maybe have 1 person watching a camera or better yet, have a camera automatically take a picture when someone passes through without a pass and then send that picture and the lift # to the top so they can be manually checked there?
Lots of potential and they’re moving in the right direction at least.
Posted in Business, Technology | 2 Comments »
January 10, 2009 by Dan Graham
Tired of carrying quarters around when you want to park in downtown Austin? Well, now you can carry around a “parking meter debit card” that will work on Austin Parking Meters. Great idea, right? Wrong.
The card itself is where the value is stored, like cash. You have to be in person to recharge it and it has to be at physical location on 12th and Rio Grande (just like a Dave n Busters Card). Why Austin??!??! This is ridiculous. The only reasons I can think of to do it in this archaic fashion is 1) they hope citizens will lose their cards so they can keep the lost cash, 2) whoever decided to do the program this way is technically challenged, or 3) they are concerned about privacy — do people really want the city to know they are parking downtown??? Give me a break.
They should just create accounts for people they can charge online with their credit cards or e-check. You’d be able to monitor your spend, print out receipts, all from home! Is it really more of a hassle to drop a few coins in your pocket before you leave home than to drive down to a recharge station?
What’s more, if the city created accounts, it could easily be transfered to drivers licenses or credit cards (the way you print your boarding pass at the airport), and the need for a special ‘card’ would disappear.
At any rate, I suppose it’s a nice step toward using good technology, and granted I don’t know how city governance works too much, but let’s get some web savvy people into office so that we can start taking advantage of the internet and digital technologies.
Should Austin really be behind on these kinds of things? I’d like our city to be more advanced please, thank you.
Posted in Austin, Technology | Tagged austin parking, austin parking meter, austin parking meter card, austin technology sucks, parking meter card, parking meter debit card | 4 Comments »
January 5, 2009 by Dan Graham
Some friends of mine recently bought about 15 acres of land on the outskirts of Austin with the intention of fixing it up, buying more adjacent land and then moving there. Lisa and I visited the other day and I must say that I’m quite impressed. The previous owners were not only living on it but also using it as a storage space to keep all manner of junk (most of which has been removed).
While getting a tour of the land, however, we came across an old wheelchair in the middle of a foresty area which they swear wasn’t there before. It was falling apart, rusted and partially buried in the dirt. How did the wheelchair get there so suddenly and in such a sedentary state? Simply — ghosts!
It’s ironic that one of their new donkeys is named ‘Boo’ (because it was born on Halloween — not because of the Haunted land.
They are keeping a blog (‘No Name Farm / Ranch’) about their land and the various challenges and plans for the property and it’s a great read. If you are a gardener or have thought of getting something other than a cat or have your own property you’re thinking about, give it a look and feel free to comment.
Posted in Austin | Tagged austin chickens, austin cows, austin donkeys, austin farm, austin ranch, haunted ranch, haunted wheelchair, manor farm, manor ranch, raising donkeys | Leave a Comment »
December 31, 2008 by Dan Graham
There’s no denying it. I love my Kindle and I hate paper books. I don’t like holding them with two hands, I don’t like keeping the pages pulled apart so I can read the words near the binding (often the best words are located there), and I don’t like lugging them around with me on trips. Enter the e-book!
Granted many books aren’t on the Kindle yet, so consider this a public service announcement to you publishers out there. If your book isn’t available in digital format, I’m not going to read it unless it is recommended to me by someone as the best book they’ve ever read.
I’ve even started buying books I’ve gotten as gifts for the Kindle to avoid the hassle. It’s a little like keeping a checklist of victories in the Kindle; I can page through all my completed books and feel good about myself without having to take up ever increasing amounts of bookshelf space which I hear is bad for the environment (so is using all that paper come to think of it)!!
All you paper book lovers out there should know better!! — don’t you read??
Posted in Technology | 3 Comments »
December 29, 2008 by Dan Graham
I just put up my current reading list on the blog so that you can follow along with my adventures through books! Feel free to comment, ask questions or add your one review to anything I’m posting there
Posted in General | Tagged dan graham book, dan graham reading list | Leave a Comment »
December 24, 2008 by Dan Graham
With the use of e-commerce rising and the elimination of ’shelves’ and ‘in-stock’ items (unless you are buying a wii or a kindle), procrastinators such as myself have been able to wait longer and longer to buy Christmas presents, even able to get things delivered lickity split just a few days before Christmas. But what about the day before Christmas? Or even on Christmas day? Too late, even for speedy e-commerce companies, right? Wrong!
Companies like Amazon.com are sending out scores of newsletters letting people know that you can still download gift cards last minute to print out and stuff in a stocking. iTunes music is another great example. Companies are using virtual goods to basically sell IOU’s that go as great gifts at the last minute — well played Amazon.
Posted in Business | Tagged ecommerce christmas sales, last minute christmas shopping | Leave a Comment »
