Tuesday, January 31, 2012
I'll "Talk Hard" if you listen!
Growing up on of my favorite movies was "Pump up The Volume," I always wanted to be Christian Slater! I wanted the ability to speak freely and be amplified. I wanted to speak for the quite, speak for the voiceless, speak for the unspoken (I need to stop before I break into a chorus of Sing by My Chemical Romance).
Than a few years ago a friend showed me the web site BlogTalkRadio.com I quickly learned that this was the platform to do the very thing that I had always wanted to do.
I spent sometime setting up my account and learning how to run things. After awhile I felt I was ready to do my first broadcast and that happened to be What is it like being a Muslim Convert?
It turned out ok I think. I know that I was nervous and all my public speaking and acting class crawled into an escape pod and made an emergency ejection from my brain. But again, it wasn't all bad to date is has had over 600 listens; and a year later it lead to my own documentary They Choose Islam.
Time went by and this little project of mine fell by the wayside. At the same time I trying to run a small Islamic Study Group. Life happened (aka I am lazy) and that too fell by the wayside.
I have 2 thoughts on why...
First is that I put Islam in the title, and I wonder that with the current Islamophobia spreading like wild fire, maybe that turned some people away and believe me when I say that this doesn't mean I am going to stop doing what I am doing! The other is that I used a different method of promoting the show this past week and I feel liked it failed.
What do people like? What do people want to hear more of or less of?
And to further build on this thought...I still need just a few more surveys done to make the Bluberry computer system kick in. Who would have thought it would have been this much of a struggle to get a handful of these done?
Than a few years ago a friend showed me the web site BlogTalkRadio.com I quickly learned that this was the platform to do the very thing that I had always wanted to do.
I spent sometime setting up my account and learning how to run things. After awhile I felt I was ready to do my first broadcast and that happened to be What is it like being a Muslim Convert?
It turned out ok I think. I know that I was nervous and all my public speaking and acting class crawled into an escape pod and made an emergency ejection from my brain. But again, it wasn't all bad to date is has had over 600 listens; and a year later it lead to my own documentary They Choose Islam.
Time went by and this little project of mine fell by the wayside. At the same time I trying to run a small Islamic Study Group. Life happened (aka I am lazy) and that too fell by the wayside.
By this time I was feeling really bad. My study group was going nowhere, I wasn't paying attention to my broadcasting on BlogTalk. I wasn't helping myself grow as a Muslim, I wasn't helping spread the truth about Islam, and I wasn't helping to fight Islamophobia.
After a little poking and prodding by my wife to do something with my study group I had a brain storm. Why not try to combine the study group and my broadcast? And that lead to The Truth Behind Sharia. As of today it has had about 200 listens.
I had a lot of fun doing these broadcasts. I wanted to do more. I kept mulling it over in my head...How can I work on my nervousness? How can I get more listeners? Are people even listening to me?
I changed my mindset, and realized I had to shake it off and just do it! Sorry Nike. I decided to just do shows whenever I had free. This resulted in two shows, one of which I had to delete due to technical issues the other was Whatever is on my mind today!
While I was building my confidence I was tweeting and posting about needing feeding back, trying to get listeners to speak up...I am looking at the numbers and I know people are listening but they are not talking back.
I was talking to my wife one night and sharing my vision and dream with her. At the end of the conversation I had come to the conclusion that, as had been suggested, I would start doing the broadcast every week at the same time. Thus was the birth of the Tuesday night Recovery Room.
Since than I have done 3 or 4 broadcast, and people that comment online I find out later, in person, they really never listened. This last week I did a broadcast about Islam in Marriage. I got my weekly report of listens and I had a 24% drop in listening.
I have 2 thoughts on why...
First is that I put Islam in the title, and I wonder that with the current Islamophobia spreading like wild fire, maybe that turned some people away and believe me when I say that this doesn't mean I am going to stop doing what I am doing! The other is that I used a different method of promoting the show this past week and I feel liked it failed.
At the end of the day it is a touch frustrating for me.
I know the people are there and I know people are listening but I can't get the
feed back I feel I need.
What do people like? What do people want to hear more of or less of?
And to further build on this thought...I still need just a few more surveys done to make the Bluberry computer system kick in. Who would have thought it would have been this much of a struggle to get a handful of these done?
I am not sure what I am doing right or what I am doing wrong...and since people
are not coming back to me...I am kind of at a loss. I know its there and I think I am doing it right, I just have to get to a hold of it.
So if you have the time tonight join me in the Recovery Room and help me recover from this! And for those that are listening...Thanks :)
Looking at last weeks numbers, seems Islam & Marriage was not that popular. Oh well! Join me tonight to Recover http://ow.ly/8Feoi
Monday, January 30, 2012
I think I found 1 topic for tomorrows Recovery Room (http://bit.ly/aXGwzK) Is this Halal?? http://bit.ly/xrE6Jf
Saturday, January 28, 2012
Friday, January 27, 2012
Thursday, January 26, 2012
Tuesday, January 24, 2012
Listen to tonight's podcast of Islam Marriage 101, with Fatimah updating us on the Muslim Marriage Event http://ping.fm/vQLGW
The simplest way to make me stop doing from doing this post is to click the link! I need 4 more people We can do this! http://t.co/pZlyL5lm
"@rompenni: NYPD uses Islamophobic film to train officers http://t.co/rxKCrH7q Muslim Islam Islamophobia" COME ON! Is this 1930 Germany?
Class Cup #2: Espresso or Drip? (Repost from http://bit.ly/zH2Mha)
How many times have you heard someone say “I can’t start my day without my latte,” or maybe you are that kind of person. If that is the case, I am about to share something with you that might change you morning routine forever.
Truth is if it caffeine you are after to jump start your day, than you might be going about it all wrong (and more than likely spending too much in the process). Before anyone freaks on me, let me say that I do like a good espresso every now and again, and working in the coffee world I am always looking for what coffee geeks call the “god shot.”
What baristas and coffee snobs call a “god shot” is a single origin coffee with which you pull a shot of espresso. What makes it so special is because most espressos are blends. This is due to that fact that some people feel that no single origin coffee is good enough to with stand the pressure that coffee goes through to make an espresso shot. But I feel that I am getting ahead of myself…
Let’s first look at what a shot of espresso is. Espresso is approximately two ounces of a thick ‘heavy bodied’ coffee with a topping of what appears to be foam, but what is called crema. Before I forget, please note I said “heavy bodied,” and not over extracted coffee (which I will come back to).
Now this crema is what makes espresso espresso. We all know water and oil don’t mix, we learned that in element school. But what they didn’t teach us (at least me) was that under high pressure water and oil will…wait for it…emulsify (there is your five dollar word of the day). Coffee beans have oil in them naturally, in case you question me, look at some darker roasted coffee. The darker the roast the more the heat causes these oils to push to the surface of the bean. When you place the coffee in the portafilter and begin the process of extraction the pressure forces the oils and the water to bond, making the foam on top of your shot called crema. On a side note if your espresso don’t have crema, they did something wrong!
This is the part you need to start paying attention to…this crema is where gases and oils from the coffee are fused together, now, if coffee gets its flavor from these oils and gases (and sugars, but that is a later topic) and they are all fused with water what you are really getting is concentrated flavor. And if it is a latte or cappuccino, it is concentrated flavor with heated milk!
The last few points I want to make are that espresso is normally ground very fine, almost powder like. This is because (and it makes for a nice segue into my next point) the water that is being pressurized is in contact for such a short time that you need to make sure all the ground coffee is used. Also, as an aside to this, if the coffee is to course the water just runs right through the grounds; if it is to fine nothing comes out at all…and the water backs up into the machine and finds another way out (i.e.…lose hose) and a big mess is made…don’t ask how I know this.
As I said for a shot of espresso the water is only in contact with the ground coffee for a short time, normally in the neighborhood of twenty-five seconds. In the grand scheme of coffee extraction twenty-five seconds is nothing, especially when compared to something like a French press or drip, which can take up to four minutes.
So now we know that when making drip coffee the water is in contact with the grounds for about four minutes. Another difference is the grind. If you are grinding your coffee for drip it drip it needs to be more course than espresso, meaning there is more surface area for the water to cover.
Since you are all fairly clever people I am guessing you just had a Ah-ha moment. But for those that didn’t have that, let me lay it out for you…powder like grind, bonding of oils and water, twenty five second of water to bean contact verses courser grind, and four minutes of water to bean contact.
Which one will take more of the oils and chemicals (a.k.a. caffeine) out of the ground coffee? The drip will. It has far more time to extract the goodness from that ground coffee than a shot of espresso does.
So next time you need a little pick me up try a cup of coffee rather than a latte or cappuccino. However, if you are drinking that espresso shot for that taste…carry on! If you really want to try something cool order up a Red Eye (a cup of coffee with a shot of espresso in it) or a Black Eye (a cup of coffee with two shots of espresso in it).
As an epilogue to this I was talking with a friend of mine who said “ya, but why do different methods of brewing coffee taste so…well…different?” (Please note that I PERSONALLY do not consider pulling a shot of espresso “brewing” coffee) so now we have Class Cup #3: Why don’t mine taste like that?
And as always here is the DISCLAMER: PLEASE BE AWARE THE THESE POST ARE AND WILL BE HEAVLY LACED WITH PERSONAL OPIOIN. MY STATEMENTS ARE BASED ON MY YEARS WORKING IN SPECIALITY COFFEE AND AS A ROASTMASTER, AS WELL AS BEING A LIFE LONG COFFEE DRINKER.
For questions or comments you can find me on twitter (@BCDodge_me), you can email me, or leave them posted below.
Class Cup #1: Behind the filter (Repost from http://bit.ly/wYNvqZ)
Working in the world of specialty coffee it is easy to get caught up in the showmanship and flash…”my coffee is more special because it comes from a nine generational farm high on the side of an active volcano in Brazil…” or the new fad “this coffee is so rare because it passes through the digestive system of an endangered bat only found in the hills of Micronesia.”
Oh and it doesn’t stop there…the process of cupping coffee is just as bad at times. To cup coffee is to put ground coffee in a cup, pour water over it, and let it steep for four minutes. Than smell and taste the coffee.
Now don’t get me wrong, I love to cup coffee. It is the best way to check the quality of the raw bean, to test for roast level – that is to say that some coffees (like an Indonesian) taste best at a darker roast; unlike most Ethiopians that taste better (to me) at a lighter roast. Yes, they can be roasted dark but what tends to happen is the natural flavors start to get cooked out. Like Hank Hill (King of The Hill) says “Taste the meat, not the heat!” only hear it is taste the coffee not steak (yum steak!)
Where was I? Oh yes cupping. Now at these cuppings it is very common to state what you personally taste in the cup…and while it is true that coffee has more flavors than wine does…some of the these Coffee Geeks and Snobs don’t know when enough is enough.
A few years back I was at a public cupping (and it was so traumatic I still talk about it) where the “Coffee Expert” was tasting the coffees and he kept going on and on about how this one tasted like red tomatoes, this one tasted of green tomatoes, but that one tasted like fried green tomatoes with a hint of garlic!
I wanted to grab this dude by his tie (I really dislike ties, but I won’t talk about that now) and bark at him “O M G What did you have for lunch, man?”
By now I am sure you are asking what is my point? (and to be honest I am struggling to remember too)
I have two points. My first is that coffee, much like wine I assume, is very mental. If I tell you “this coffee I am drinking has hints of strawberries“ than I hand you my cup. Guess what happens next? You taste strawberries! (Confession: I am bad at hiding my thoughts while I am cupping especially if the coffee is really good or really bad) And let’s be real, how many of us have ever drunk a cup of coffee and thought “someone put tomato soup in my coffee.”
My second point is that the average coffee drinker DOESN’T CARE! The people that are going to Starbucks, McDonalds, or God forbid Seven Eleven (I had it a while ago at the urging of a friend, it was the only cup of coffee I couldn’t finish it was nasty) don’t care where their coffee comes from. They want to get their coffee and get on with their day.
With all this said here it is: I am going to try and write a series of posts that will peek behind the curtain of specialty coffee. I will do my best to demystify what is in your cup and what you are putting into your body.
My goal is to make sure people like @DragynAlly (one of my twitter followers, in fact she spawned the idea for all of this) understands why some coffee is seven dollars a pound, while others are twenty eight dollars a pound. Why the coffee here always tastes burnt, while the coffee there has such an after taste.
While I am working on my next post “Class Cup #2: Espresso or Drip” please feel free to tweet (@BCDodge_me), email, or post your questions or comments.
DISCLAMER: PLEASE BE AWARE THE THESE POST ARE AND WILL BE HEAVLY LACED WITH PERSONAL OPIOIN. MY STATEMENTS ARE BASED ON MY YEARS WORKING IN SPECIALITY COFFEE AND AS A ROASTMASTER, AS WELL AS BEING A LIFE LONG COFFEE DRINKER.
Monday, January 23, 2012
Oh ok guys really!! I need 4 more of the surveys done before the computer kicks in...Anyone? 4 more! Help? http://bit.ly/wfUAnY
Sunday, January 22, 2012
Friday, January 20, 2012
More Podcast Prattle
I was just looking over that stats for last few months of my (and yes I am prattling on about that again, forgive me, I am trying to learn and get people involved) My broadcast on Sharia law has had 173 listens since I did it, and the one from this past Tuesday has had 24 listens (since one has been up longer than the other that is not a real surprise). I want to make this the best I can while still trying to stay true to my base ideas. With all that said I am (again!) asking people to jump over to http://bit.ly/w52gms and follow that link on the page. I am working with on learning my audience and trying to reach out to more people, but before they will give me the results I need a few more surveys filled out (I want to point out that I, personally, do not see any of the data that you put in or who is putting it in. takes all the information into their system and does what they do). I wan to try and get the truth about out as much as I can, while having a little fun. But to do this I need your . So please keep listening and commenting, and for the 3 people that did listen via please post a review, even if it is bad.
And this Tuesday at 7pm...as far as I know...we will be having a guest on to talk about an upcoming event in and my wife will be working with me to talk about , so please join us.
Thanks for spending some time reading this.
And this Tuesday at 7pm...as far as I know...we will be having a guest on to talk about an upcoming event in and my wife will be working with me to talk about , so please join us.
Thanks for spending some time reading this.
Thursday, January 19, 2012
Ya ya I know another stupid useless post by me about my silly little Podcast, but I have done my best to ask kindly, because I know you people are out there, and I don't know how else to ask.
So I have taken this to the next level and have made it simple as well.
Please take 5 minutes to help me make "The Recovery Room" a little better by going to http://bit.ly/wfUAnY
So I have taken this to the next level and have made it simple as well.
Please take 5 minutes to help me make "The Recovery Room" a little better by going to http://bit.ly/wfUAnY
Little help from my iTunes users out there. If you listen to my Podcast (or don't) please go to http://bit.ly/uqBaOQ & rate the show.
Thanks for this @dansyde "Hilarious. Thanks for posting @dcbrau http://t.co/mCxMQQ9C -- dansyde (@dansyde)"
I think my brain is about to eat it self! HOW does this man think he can represent us after this http://bit.ly/xsNA9g & this http://fxn.ws/ytAS4F & now this http://bit.ly/zndvaL are we all being punked??
Wednesday, January 18, 2012
Want to know about Sharia Law Mr. Newt (@newtgingrich)(or anyone) listen to my Podcast http://bit.ly/rJuJOK (Not self promotion, just facts)
I ask Mr. Newt (@newtgingrich) would you be offended if I demanded you as a Christian denounce the 10 Commandments? http://fxn.ws/ytAS4F
Tuesday, January 17, 2012
BCDodge.me has Offically Joined the Strike: Jan 18th! All-out blackout 2 stop SOPA PIPA. Petition @twitter and other sites to join us. http://ping.fm/prmim
Growin up I always wanted to be Christian Slater in "Pump Up the Volume" now thanks to BlogTalkRadio I can be! tune in http://bit.ly/xOSFvH
Monday, January 16, 2012
Sunday, January 15, 2012
This Tuesday @ 7pm in the Recovery Room: I will talk current events & about the heart crushing place that isn't Halal! http://bit.ly/xOSFvH
Saturday, January 14, 2012
Friday, January 13, 2012
Thursday, January 12, 2012
Wednesday, January 11, 2012
Tuesday, January 10, 2012
Got my BlogTalkRadio report for Sunday's show, 108 listens, I think that's pretty damn good! No? Trying to build it up & make it better...what are your thoughts on it? I mean other than the 4 people who have already told me...http://ping.fm/hK1Fx
Monday, January 9, 2012
For all my Arabs in the house...esp @EgyNoha (wait till about the 1:30 mark you'll see lol) http://bit.ly/zty8NW
Got this off of Facebook via "Sirius XM Comedy" thought some of my football followers might like this http://bit.ly/xg2XoK
2nd-ly Listen to my new episode & give some feedback! "Whatever is on my mind today!" at http://ping.fm/hK1Fx BlogTalkRadio
Sunday, January 8, 2012
Listen to my new episode & give some feedback! "Whatever is on my mind today!" at http://ping.fm/hK1Fx BlogTalkRadio
Saturday, January 7, 2012
Friday, January 6, 2012
Thursday, January 5, 2012
Did another BlogTalkRadio Podcast, would LOVE comments,please? I know you ppl are listening have the stats! FEEDBACK http://bit.ly/Aghvw6
EVERYONE SHOULD LISTEN TO THIS! Look you got questions about SOPA or NDAA? Got 1/2 hour to spare? http://bit.ly/zHqlEg
Wednesday, January 4, 2012
Tuesday, January 3, 2012
Monday, January 2, 2012
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