ThomasRye.com » How To

How To Improve cheap coffee in 5 steps – The Office Mocha

Thomas Rye — Thu, 18 Nov 2010 17:38:44 +0000

1. Pour your office-grade coffee Be it Folgers, Maxwell House or another entry-level coffee this is your base. The main thing is that it has at least some mild flavor of actual coffee. You’ll see here that I’ve gotten the best part of the office coffee – the bottom of the pot, where you’ll find any grounds that slipped through the filter.
2. Add a packet of hot chocolate I’m using Swiss Miss here. I got a box of 10 of them for $1. You can opt for a premium hot chocolate mix and it may improve your office mocha respectively.
3. Microwave for 45 seconds (optional) If, like me, you’ve gotten the last of the pot of coffee, you may notice that the coffee your grounds are floating in is a bit below preferred temperature. It’s important that the coffee be pretty warm or hot because it helps the hot chocolate to melt and mix in.
4. Stir hot chocolate in coffee until smooth and frothy This is where this simple and cost-effective concoction really starts too look tasty. If you are good with a toothpick you might even be able to make one of those cool coffee art designs on top.
5. Enjoy ‘The Office Mocha’ I hope you’re surprised at how tasty this budget beverage is. I find that it really comes in handy if I’ve run out of good creamer at the office or when I need to cut back on $5 coffee shop coffees.

If you have your own version of this or know of some ways to make it even better – please share in the comments below!

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How To: Get Un-Followed on Twitter (10 Steps)

Thomas Rye — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 17:50:51 +0000

1. Tweet anything about “Get more followers”

If you advertise “get more followers” you can be sure that you will only get more followers that are just like you – trying to get more followers. There is no substance in that.

Case in point: @pyra_bang

2. Tweet links that go to any sort of multi-level marketing

Multi-level marketing, don’t get me started. Aside from that though, you can’t expect to get sales out of impersonal follow-at-random strategy. At least learn about hashtags, trending, and other social media tools that can help direct you toward people with money that don’t know how to spend it on good things. First tip: Search hashtags for #ispendmoneyondumbstuff

3. Have links that go anywhere other than where they say they will

Dirty tricks. Enough said.

4. No tweets

Either fill in your bio blurb or at least put an inaugural “Trying out this twitter thing” tweet

5. Duplicate your own tweets

We all have accidents or program glitches that duplicate posts something. But when I see:
XYZ is the best new supplement on the market
XYZ is the best new supplement on the market
XYZ is the best new supplement on the market
… ad nauseam, then I know that you’re a loser.

(This includes when you go to someones twitter page and see an @reply to 20 people with the same message)

6. Retweet your own tweets

see #5, it’s the same thing, really… thinly veiled Einstein.

7. Tweet at a “relevance ratio” higher than once every 15 minutes.

“Relevance Ratio” allows for more than the 1 tweet/15 mins from someone that tweets about things worth reading… or stuff that’s funny.

8. Every tweet is a link.

If I wanted to just “browse the internet” I have a BROWSER to do that. Get with the times, I don’t want just links, I want YOUR TAKE on the links. Sum up a story in 140 characters for me. To me twitter is a way to get EVEN FASTER information on the lightning speed internet.

9. Have an auto-responder Direct Message that sounds like a used-car salesman when I follow you.

“Thanks for following! I think we’ll be able to find you something to buy via my tweets very soon!” OR “Thanks for the follow! DM me any time if you have questions I can help answer!” – If you’re using an auto-responder when people follow you, chances are you don’t have time (or won’t take time) to respond to messages or mentions.

10. Chain many tweets together to encompass one thought.

They limited it to 140 characters for a reason… and that reason was not so you can see how many tweets you can overlap onto. If you can’t say it in one tweet – consider blogging! They go great hand-in-hand.

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The Man Trip (10 Steps)

Thomas Rye — Sat, 20 Feb 2010 10:25:19 +0000

Thanks to my HTC Hero and WordPress for Android, I decided to use the 5+ hour drive to Bull Shoals Buffalo River Nat’l River to blog about it.

I’ll be making on-going updates as the trip goes on to try to encompass the essence of… The Man Trip.

Plan to start traveling to destination at an ungodly hour (ie 4am)
- Don’t get to bed til 2am the night before
- Sleep past “scheduled” start time by hours (reasons: see above)
Discuss and compare new gear bought for the trip focusing especially on masculine items such as knives and hatchets
Try to have a ratio of one GPS device per person. This is mainly for effect though
- 4 GPS devices between two cars and we still found a way to get separated and add a couple hours to the trip by missing turns
Once at destination, take a hike and talk with knowledge about things you don’t actually know how to do
- identify and “track” animals by their paw prints
- identify and comment on the type of wood in the area and it use for fire or camp set up
Grow out facial hair… whatever you’ve got
Do simple man-activities
- Throw or skip rocks
- Throw or skip very large rocks
- Throw knives and hatchets at anything they’ll stick in
- Build fire (see #7)
- Build excessively large fire
Build Fire
- If this were a ranked list by importance, this would be #1 followed by growing out facial hair.
- If nothing else is done on the trip… this MUST be done
Discuss how well you and your buddies could survive back in “The Olden Days”
- Near the end of the trip as you begin to feel very comfortable and accomplished with your camping abilities
Drink Beer
- Even if you’re not a beer drinker.
- Other booze will do as a substitute.
- Extra points if you drink the booze out of a rustic looking flask.
Bring only enough food so that you believe you’ll actually have to kill something
- Be sure to have a few extra granola bars or cans of beans to survive on when you, inevitably, do not kill anything

*Updates: 2/21 6pm

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Sprint HTC Hero – Rooted (for Screen Capture)

Thomas Rye — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 22:23:27 +0000

I wanted to do did a blog post and show some of the screens of my new Sprint HTC Hero phone. After a few failed attempts to get a good picture of it using my camera, I decided to look for a way to get a screen capture. I found out that you have to “root” your phone to be able to capture screen shots from it. So I went through that process.

This is the short list, “for advanced users,” you might say. This is simply for “rooting” only, not flashing ROMs.
Detailed How-To

Rooting my Sprint HTC Hero

Get Android SDK
- [FILE] http://developer.android.com/sdk/download.html?v=android-sdk_r04-windows.zip
- [LINK] http://developer.android.com/sdk/1.6_r1/index.html

Get proper ADB drivers
- [FILE] http://www.anddev.org/download.php?id=449
- [LINK] http://www.anddev.org/debugging-installing_apps_on_the_g1_windows_driver-t3236.html

Setup ADB
- [PROCESS] http://theunlockr.com/2009/10/06/how-to-set-up-adb-usb-drivers-for-android-devices/
- [ADVANCED]
- Start > Run > cmd
- cd\
- cd AndroidSDK\tools\ (or where ever your AndroidSDK directory is)
- adb devices
- if a serial number shows – you’re good

Got PicMe App for Screen Capture
- Takes it via PC (USB hookup)
- Creates an IP address to view live or static feed of your screen

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Martial Arts: Part 1 Knowing your built-in weapons

Thomas Rye — Fri, 22 Jan 2010 15:00:39 +0000

This is the first in an intended series of posts on Exploration & Explanation. The first set is Martial Arts. I will be detailing my experience and exploration in martial arts and self-defense.

I decided to put on Bourne Supremacy today while I did some things around the house. Only minutes into the movie, I remembered my deep love and near obsession with all things “Spy” (See my favorites list on Spy Movies). If you’re familiar with the Bourne movies you will remember that amongst the secrecy, sniper-shots and fast car chases there is a good amount of close quarters hand-to-hand combat (also see Nathan’s Ten Steps: Being a Spy). Bourne and his Treadstone counter parts are all well versed in using their hands, feet and entire bodies to quickly incapacitate their opponents.

Part 1: Knowing your built-in weapons

The human body has been used since the beginning of time as a weapon potent enough to kill. And through the ages many methods and styles have been developed to hone this ability. Some focus on blunt force requiring great strength or multiple strikes to vulnerable targets. Some take a knowledge of anatomy and use of body mechanics to break bones or dislocate joints using leverage. Then there are still other styles that take the knowledge of anatomy to pinpoint pressure points and exploit weak areas of the body into submission.

Today we will start with the basics, though. Striking. There’s 1001 ways to hit a man, but the ones that are extremely efficient comprise a much shorter list. Here are 6 basic strikes to make your hands more useful in combat:

Strike	Best Target
Foreknuckle Punch	Solar Plexus
Half Fist	Trachea
Knifehand Chop	Brachial Plexus
Reverse Knifehand	Filtrum
Palm (Straight Strike)	Solar Plexus/Pubis
Palm Heel (Downward Strike)	Bridge of the Nose

More to come about Martial Arts exploration. If you have a punching bag at home or want to position a good thick pillow against the wall, you can practice familiarizing yourself with your built-in weapons.

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How To: Be a Spy (10 Steps)

Nathan — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 18:34:44 +0000

Aston Martin DB9 ~ $170,000	1. CARS Drive a car that is laughably and obviously way above your government pay grade. (If indeed you are officially employed by a government.)
Q & some Bond Gadgets	2. GADGETS If you happen to be a spy from the 60s or 70s, you absolutely must have an array of gadgets given to you ahead of time that end up being the following: a) the only gadgets you need other than the tools lying around you at the time, b) the exact gadgets you’ll need for incredibly specific tasks or points of danger requiring more than just the wits and dashing good looks you carry with you the rest of the time, c)each gadget must either fit inside some unassuming object (e.g. a camera case, a briefcase panel, the heel of your Italian leather shoes), be easily deconstructed and hidden, or simply appear to be a normal item of clothing (Note: you must carry with you a watch-based laser/grappling hook/mini-missile launcher or belt-based grappling hook/super-magnet)
Jason Bourne Bank Box	3. IN CASE OF EMERGENCY Always have what we like to call the “MultiDuff” — a duffel bag filled with multiple passports, multiple forms of currency, multiple concealed weapons and multiple medical kits.
Bourne: Newspaper as weapon	4. WEAPONS Possess the ability to assess which items in any given setting are viable weapons. Rooms of importance: kitchen, bathroom and office. (Minimum requirement: we request that you carry a very small, concealed gun)
Vesper's Death	5. WOMEN Stop thinking of women as meaningful pursuits and starting thinking about them as objects to be used and thrown away.
... and taking names	6. FIGHTING You must possess instinctive fighting skills that stretch across all easily conversationally recalled forms of martial arts. This recall must be instinctive, in case of unintentional amnesia.
Bourne speaks the language	7. THE LANGUAGE BARRIER You must be multilingual. (Note: See criteria for Fighting Skills) (Second Note: This is not required.)
Getting information, that's all	8. WOMEN, AGAIN Shortly after arriving at your first destination, it is important to become randomly acquainted with your muse for this mission. She must be worth destroying your career for while also being easy to forget should the need arise. Additionally, you must get close enough to her for your judgment to be clouded to the point of the mission nearly failing. Possibly muliple times. (Note: If you are a government agent and if you’re good, this can happen on the plane en route, or even at headquarters with your boss’ receptionist.)
Vesper Martini	9. ALCOHOL You must recognize alcohol for what it truly is. – Be able to drink it as often as an athlete drinks water. • Possess mundane details about it (e.g. the correct temperature to serve a chilled bottle of Bollinger champagne). • Drink it without looking like you care that you’re doing so. • Know the local cultural specialty drink ahead of time. Order it often while there. • Create complicated drink orders, while gambling, that get the rest of the table to order the same thing. (Note: if this pisses off your host, count it as a win.)
Perfect Accuracy	10. MARKSMANSHIP Be deadly accurate with any weapon that isn’t a sniper rifle. Despite it’s usefulness for accuracy, you need only use its scope to spy on those looking for you from across the street, or miss your target on purpose because she eventually becomes your muse (See: WOMEN, AGAIN).
Madmen & henchmen	11. COUP DE GRAS Appear physically unassuming, sexually dominating, mentally sharp and emotionally vulnerable all while battling to stop one of three things: 1. A madman bent on world domination 2. The government agency trying to kill you 3. Your impending death at the hands of your captors

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ThomasRye.com » How To

How To Improve cheap coffee in 5 steps – The Office Mocha

More From thomasrye

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How To: Get Un-Followed on Twitter (10 Steps)

1. Tweet anything about “Get more followers”

2. Tweet links that go to any sort of multi-level marketing

3. Have links that go anywhere other than where they say they will

4. No tweets

5. Duplicate your own tweets

6. Retweet your own tweets

7. Tweet at a “relevance ratio” higher than once every 15 minutes.

8. Every tweet is a link.

9. Have an auto-responder Direct Message that sounds like a used-car salesman when I follow you.

10. Chain many tweets together to encompass one thought.

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The Man Trip (10 Steps)

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Sprint HTC Hero – Rooted (for Screen Capture)

Rooting my Sprint HTC Hero

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Martial Arts: Part 1 Knowing your built-in weapons

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How To: Be a Spy (10 Steps)

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