Week 2 - Coffee, QS Philosophy, Kiwi Move
Channel: Stephen Torrence
Date: 13/01/2014

Tasting coffee, Quantifying my Self, buying a Kiwi Move, aaaand the cedar trees are trying to mate with me. It's all wonderful. Here's my week!


### 1. Coffee Tasting

At Houndstooth Coffee
http://www.houndstoothcoffee.com/

Coffee Cupping Guide
http://www.quaffee.co.za/Pages/xtras/CoffeeCupping.aspx

Pop Chart Lab - The Compendious Coffee Chart
http://popchartlab.com/collections/prints/products/the-compendious-coffee-chart


### 2. Quantified Self "Philosophy"

Quantified Self
http://quantifiedself.com/

MIT - The Measured Life
http://www.technologyreview.com/featuredstory/424390/the-measured-life/

Quantified Self Austin
http://www.meetup.com/Quantified-Self-Austin/

Laurie Frick
http://www.lauriefrick.com/

Seeing the hidden language in art: Laurie Frick at TEDxAustin
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UDsIWKWTG6A

Buddhist Geeks - Quantified Selflessness
http://www.buddhistgeeks.com/2013/10/bg-298-quantified-selflessness/


### 3. Kiwi Move

Visualizing my first year of Nike+ FuelBand
http://stephent.me/blog/2013/10/24/visualizing-my-first-year-of-nike-fuelband

Kiwi Move
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xNZrYqYuB6g

Kiwi Wearables
http://www.kiwiwearables.com/

MYO Gesture Control Armband
https://www.thalmic.com/en/myo/

Narrative
http://getnarrative.com/

Nymi
http://www.getnymi.com/

Angel Sensor
http://www.angelsensor.com/

Skulpt Aim
http://www.skulpt.me/


## Transcript

Coming up! I learn how to taste coffee better, the quantified self movement is pretty interesting, and I bought a new thing that I can put on my body... because that's what I do. Let's talk about my week.

Everything in here is... swollen... still..... meh

Number One!

I spend a LOT of my time in coffee shops, so it might surprise you to learn that I am not terribly discriminating when it comes to coffee. I've actually never been able to identify like the chocolate notes or the black fruit flavors or anything. So when I had the opportunity in a coffee tasting session at Houndstooth Coffee (which is one of my favorite places in Austin), I did! And I learned... one thing.

What they did is they brewed the same kind of coffee three different ways. I think it was... French press, pour over, and clever. And we took a spoon and dipped in a spoonful and slurped it so that we could get the full spectrum of flavors in our mouth. I couldn't tell the difference between the pour over and the clever, but I could tell the difference between those two and the French press. So I might've learned something, and I'm definitely becoming a coffee snob.

Number Two!

So I'm sure that many of you out there have heard of the "Quantified Self" movement. Generally it refers to people who track a bunch of things about themselves and use that data to improve their lives, whether it's losing weight, or getting healthier, or eating better, or all of those things, all at the same time.

Here in Austin we have a local chapter of the Quantified Self group. It is organized by Mark and Laurie Frick. Laurie I highly recommend y'all check out. She has done art works representing her self-tracking data and she did a local TED talk at TEDxAustin. I'll link that in the doobly-doo.

During this week's meeting we had an excellent roundtable discussion that got into some of the hairier issues of Quantified Self like data privacy and the effectiveness of an N = 1 experiment. If you're just looking at yourself, how much can you really generalize that? Can you even generalize that?

If you too are interested  in the philosophy of the Quantified Self, check out Chris Dancy's interview with the Buddhist Geeks podcast. I agree with Chris on a lot of his points, but I'm curious what y'all think. So listen to the interview and come back and comment on the video and stuff.

Number Three

Wearable tech is one of the big things that got me interested in the Quantified Self meetup. I bought a Nike+ FuelBand last year and I've used it a lot and I have some... mixed thoughts on it. Link in the doobly-doo.

I'm almost embarrassed to say how many pre-orders I made in 2013 for wearables that will come out this year. Two MYO arm bands. A Memoto / Narrative. Nymi Sensor. Angel Sensor. A Skulpt Aim. And finally the Kiwi Move, which... has a really neat video, and looks like it could an interesting competitor to some of those other ones.

When it comes out I will definitely tell y'all whether it is wonderful or not wonderful or somewhere in between. Yes, I am crazy. And I know what you're thinking... Yes, there will be a video where I wear all of them on both wrists... and do this.

Alright, that's it! I'm gonna cut it off at three today because my allergies are absolutely killing me. As always, transcript, show notes, all that good stuff is down below. I've left a few extra things there, AND...

This Raspberry Pi is awesome! You should subscribe.

(Ugh...) I hate cedar pollen... But I love you! I'm Stephen Torrence and I'll see you next week. Buh bye!