Buddy Walk 2009

This year was our second time at the buddy walk in Cincinnati for the Down Syndrome Association. We went to support our 1 year old son Mason who has down syndrome. Along with our immediate family, lots of other family and friends came with us. We did a little better this year with organization but things were still a little crazy. Hopefully next year things will be pretty solid and there won't be too many follies. Either way, it was a fun time and it's a good cause and that's all that matters in the end. The following is a small journal of how the day went.

We started the morning off moving kind of slow and rushed to get ready at the very end (most people who know us usually assumes this is how we will operate for anything with a deadline). We finally got the kids in the van and on the road and only 45 minutes behind schedule this time!



On the way to the walk, I was starting to get very hungry due to skipping breakfast, so I asked my wife to stop at Mcdonalds. After yelling at each other through four or five stop lights, we both came to the agreement that I would get some Mcdonalds for all of us. :) We were supposed to be at the walk by 9:30 A.M. since it started at 10, but we ended up running to Sawyer Point as the walk had already started! DOH. We had to stop and take a picture though!



We finally met up with everyone and decided to go on the short walk. What we didn't realize is that the short walk is VERY short. It took a group of about 20 people with kids to walk around the short walk in 5 minutes. That didn't go very well but at least the kids got to play at the festival once we were done. Next year we will definitely do the "long" walk. Of course we had to take another picture before we were done. This pic shows everyone who came to the buddy walk to show their support for Mason, thanks guys!



We got to do a lot of cool things with the kids after the walk and this was one the best parts of the day. The kids got to pet a snake, my daughter Jayden got to do some simulated rock climbing, there was free food, balloon animals, the works. I ran into my buddy Rob who also has a daughter with down syndrome and got to talk with him for awhile as well. Oh and darth vader was there as well. :)

[flashvideo file="video/vader.flv" /]

Transporter 3 Blu-ray review

Transporter 3 is definitely the best comedy on Blu-Ray right now.  That would be high praise if this wasn't an action movie of course.  Here's the plot for you:  Frank Martin (Jason Statham doing what he does best - emoting very little and rocking a five o'clock shadow) is a transporter.  He transport things.  This is apparently a lucrative business.  Unlike FedEx and UPS - Frank uses an Audi sports car.  He's a no questions asks professional who just gets the job done.  Frank, however, has a problem.  He seems to always get stuck transporting women.  Frank is essentially a totally awesome taxi driver who can kick the shit out of 10 people at once (while getting undressed for the ladies).  This time around Frank is stuck transporting a skanky acid dropping party girl by the name of Valentina.  Luc Besson and his writing partner didn't care to give her a last name so I will.  Valentina Cantactworthshit.

You see, Miss Cantactworthshit is the daughter of a Ukrainian politician who deals in complaining, nice suits, and the environment.  Some goons from a very unexplained company  are trying to force him into giving them the permission to dump toxic waste into the ocean.  They could just save time and dump it out in international waters where no one would notice, but then we wouldn't have this gem of celluloid now would we?  Anyway, in order to do this they kidnap his daughter while she is getting jiggy with it on the dance floor.  Anyway, Valentina and Frank end up with cheap looking bracelets that tether them to the car.  If they go more than 75 feet from the vehicle - it's KABOOM time.  This seems to not bother Valentina one bit.  In fact, she seems perfectly fine with all the guns and explosions and death.  Frank basically drives her around Europe encountering one implausible event after another. To say more would be a waste of time - because really this entire movie is a waste of time.  I'll get right down to it in a list of complete and stupid absurdities this movie hurls at the viewer in rapid succession:

- A car crashes into Frank's house and he doesn't flinch or really seem concerned at all.  His expression was basically "I'll worry about this after I make a sandwich."

- EMT's rescue the man from the car and somehow manage to not notice A WOMAN SLEEPING IN THE BACK SEAT!  Furthermore, she slept through the crash.  That's pretty impressive in it's own right.

- The two Frank vs hired goons action scenes are almost identical to one another.  Frank just loses more clothes in the second one.

- Watching Frank fight for his life, kill people, and lose his clothes in the process turns on Valentina.  She goes from hating him to wanting to bone him over the course of 1 minute.

- Frank's mysterious friend who works in the middle of nowhere inexplicably knows exactly how the top secret bomb device works thanks to the internet.  He can't fix it though because it's "wired to the car."  No shit Sherlock!  How else would it work!?

- Frank can chase down an Audi sports car on a bike while riding it through houses and down hand rails and fuck may as well go right up a wall too.  There's no credibility left at this point.

- At the end of the bike chase Frank smashes through the driver side car window and ejects the driver out of the passenger door.  The glass does not cut him, he lands PERFECTLY in the seat somehow, and within seconds the glass magically repairs itself.  Furthermore, the interior of the car has no glass in it at all for the rest of the film.

- Valentina can describe foods with very good English then turns around an asks Frank "What is (insert common English word here)?"  Also, this girl must eat out a lot because she knows about a good restaurant in EVERY town they mention in the movie.  Her and Frank's entire relationship is based on food.

- Valentina seduces Frank while high on drugs leading to Frank doing a strip tease.  This goes down after a tense chase where they both almost died multiple times.  Oh  yes, Frank is easily old enough to be her dad.

- Through the magic of movie making Frank somehow hooks a cell phone up to a laptop, calls the main bad guy, and this allows his French inspector friend to trace the call.

- When Frank has to drive his car into a river to avoid death - he produces floating devices from his trunk and fills them with air from his tires.  TWO of them are able to life his 2 ton car out of the water.  I assume Yoda was on shore giving him a helping hand. Oh and a local with a tractor shows up to tow his car to dry land.  What great timing!

- After the above happens - Frank is able to START THE CAR with some minor tinkering and give chase on what should be FLAT TIRES!  However, they are magically perfectly fine and full of air!

- The final confrontation involves Frank driving his car into a train so he could fight and be close to the car.  Frank eventually overcomes the fairly feeble bad buy and finally is able to detach his explosive bracelet.  He then attaches it to the bad guy and somewhat ties his hand to the steering wheel of the car with the seatbelt.  He then throws the car into reverse.  Frank watches as the bad guy frees himself.  He then looks COMPLETELY SURPRISED as he lunges for cover when the bad guy explodes because the train and car are moving in opposite directions.  Way to almost get yourself killed dumbass!  Why didn't you put him IN THE CAR FIRST! You obviously knew if he got free he'd blow up in the train and take you with him!

- Unless the train seats block explosions.  Which the one Frank hides behind apparently does..

To make matters even worse, the movie is edited like a music video.  The fight scenes speed up for now reason and include so many edits it would make Michael Bay squeal with glee.  They totally ruin any of the mediocre fight choreograhy that Cory Yuen put together for the film.  All the car chases are undercranked as well.  Which means they took cars going the speed limit and cut frames out of the film to make them appear to be screaming down the road.  You basically get Benny Hill style car chases.  This film was directed very poorly by Olivier MEGATON.  Yes in the credits his last name is in all caps.

On the plus side the video quality was very solid.  Sharp detail, landscape shots looked great, and so did the cars.  Also, at 1080p you can count every one of the million freckles on Valentina Cantactworthshit's face. Audio is also handled quite well.

The Transporter series started off as a fun, mostly brainless, and well directed action movie.  Sadly, with each film the series becomes more and more shallow.  Jason Statham is the only reason to watch these movies.  He is a very capable fighter and actor.  With Transporter 3 you get to see very little of his talents due to the spazztastic editing and sloppy directing.  Jason deserves better.  It's pretty pathetic when In the Name of the King: A Dungeon Siege Tale (made by movie master Uwe Boll) has action scenes that are filmed 10000 times better than this turd.

1/10 and I'm being generous.

Tatuaje T110

Brand: Tatuaje
Size: Robusto 52×4.3
Wrapper: Nicaragua
Binder: Nicaragua
Filler: Nicaragua
Price: $10.00 a stick

I got this cigar from a buddy on twitter by the name of “charlie”. He hosted a cigar contest that was very simple, the first one to send him a “dm” on twitter wins. :) I was the lucky one and he asked me to review one of the smokes he sent me. The Tatuaje T110 is a very good smoke. It has a nice spiciness too it and is very full flavored. I didn’t find it was as strong as Charlie led it on to be but it was still a very good smoke.

First Impressions:
This cigar is very oily and has a nice dark wrapper. The construction looks very well done with no large veins and the smell has leathery aroma to it with a hint of cedar.

First puffs:
The first few puffs are very full flavored and dark but it keeps a smoothness to it. I’m tasting hints of cedar as well. The draw is nice and full but a slight airy. There is a nice white ash to it but a tad on the loose side.

Half way mark:
The cedar notes are still there but I’m also starting to taste some mocha notes and the spiciness is very prevalent. It’s starting to burn a little uneven, but nothing a lighter can’t fix. still very dark. chocolate notes.

Final Third:
The burn became even after I fixed it up so no real marks against construction. There are still dark mocha notes and it was smooth smoking down to the nub.

I can’t really go into a lot of detail as I’ve only smoked one of these and I usually like to review cigars that I have a box of or at least a 5 pack but this is a very good cigar from first impressions. It’s a very dark and full flavored cigar but it holds it’s smoothness throughout the entire smoke. I want to thank charlie for sending me these awesome cigars and I enjoyed everyone of them.

The Left Behind Series

One of the best series ever written. LaHaye and Jenkins did a wonderful job putting the events leading to the end of mankind into story context. Whether you know your bible or not, this is an excellent story. These writers have taken the bible and brought it to life through their eyes. This story really begins with the book titled The Rising. Then there are two others that lead you into the 12 book series of God coming back for his people and the end times with the seven seal judgements and all the rest. If you are looking for a book with plenty of suspense and action...read these books! They are great! I do not want to go into the story in fear of giving something away, but Rayford Steel is an unbeliever on a flight one night when his whole world gets turned upside down along with ever other non believer.
Wonderful books. I will be purchasing them all and reading them again. 5 stars, a must read in my opinion!

Tweetidor - the humidor that tweets

I know what you're thinking.. "not another device that tweets something!" Yup, another device that tweets something. This time it's a humidor and it tweets that status of it's relative humidity and temperature levels. For cigar aficionados, this means a lot. In order to keep your cigars "fresh" for any amount of time over a few days, they must be contained in an environment that is controlled with the perfect amount of relative humidity and temperature levels. The purpose of this is so that your cigars don't dry out or get too moist which would amount to a terrible smoking experience. The Tweetidor uses a digital precision relative humidity and temperature sensor (SHT75) along with the arduino.

I am collecting the data and storing it into a mysql database, as well as "tweeting" it's status every hour. I'm taking the data collected and creating graphs and gauges using google's chart api. You can follow the Tweetidor at http://twitter.com/tweetidor. You can also view the graphs and historical stats of the Tweetidor at http://longashes.org/tweetidor. The following article will go into as much detail as possible about how I created the Tweetidor, the problems I faced, and where you can go to make something similar yourself. You can send any questions, comments, etc. on the project by sending an email to tweetidor@gmail.com.


Step 1: Purchasing the hardware

The first step is to understand what to buy and why we are buying it. You will need the arduino hobbyists platform, a sensirion humidity sensor (the SHT15 or SHT75 are the best choices), jumper cables, soldering iron, solder, a USB cable, and possibly a multimeter and bread board for testing purposes. You will also need a PC for the arduino to communicate to and from.

The arduino is an open source hardware platform for hobbyists. You can use it to interface with a large variety of electronics from LEDs to sensors. This is the meat of the project and is what allows the sensor to communicate with the PC. You can learn more about the arduino here: http://arduino.cc/. You can purchase the arduino for about 30 bucks but there are other versions that costs less or more depending on the options you get.



The sensor is what does all of the work, it's a very complex electronic humidity/temperature sensor based on I2C technology and works similar to a 2 wire solution. The first sensor I bought was the SHT15 breakout board from sparkfun and was really easy to work with due to it's size. I ended up shorting something out and I'm not sure how; after my buddy helped solder it for me, it no longer worked. I ended up having to buy another one and went with the SHT75 since I thought it would be easier to deal with. I was only able to find it at Newark's site. It was A LOT smaller than I had first thought and slightly harder to work with than the SHT15. Both sensors are pretty much the same model but with slightly different designs.



The other items are pretty self explanatory: the usb cable is used to connect the PC to the arduino, the jumper cables are used to interface the sensor chip with the arduino, and the breadboard/multimeter are used for testing the interface between the arduino and the sensor chip.


Here are a few good places to get these items from:
Sparkfun This is where I bought my first Sensirion sensor and the rest of my stuff (arduino, breadboard, etc.)
AdaFruit Industries This site is a great resource and store to purchase the arduino and "shields" to attach to it.
Newark This was the only place I found that was selling the SHT75 version of Sensirion's sensor.


Step 2: The software

The arduino platform has it's own IDE that works on Windows, Mac OSX, and Linux. You can download these from the arduino.cc site. You will need the arduino software for your OS.

Once you have the ardunio software installed, hook up the arduino to your PC and make sure it connects correctly. After you have verified that the ardunio connects, try uploading one of the test projects that comes with the download to verify some basic functionality of the arduino (LEDs, etc.).

I won't lie when I say that the majority of the code that pulls the humidity and temperature from the SHT75 for the Tweetidor is actually code written by someone else. There has already been a few people who have interfaced this sensor (mainly the SHT15 but it's basically the same thing) with the ardunio and other microcontrollers similar to the ardunio, so there is no need to reinvent the wheel. Of course, the cigar related code, graphs, tweeting, etc. was code that I had to write/piece together else where and I'll go over that a little bit later. You can download/look at this code at a couple of sites. Go ahead and grab the code at these places since you will need it when you start your testing.

You can find some helpful code at the following links:
http://www.glacialwanderer.com/hobbyrobotics/?p=5
http://www.practicalarduino.com/news/id/211


Step 3: Initial Testing

There really isn't much to the overall connections between these devices. The SHT75 has 4 pins. The first is for the serial clock, the second is for power, the third is for ground, and the fourth is for data. There are already a few guides online which describe how to connect the sensor chip to the arduino. Based on how the variables are set in the code you are using, you would connect the serial clock from the SHT75 to the digital pin "11" on the arduino, power (or VCC) from the SHT75 goes to the 5v power pin on the arduino, ground from the SHT75 goes to the ground pin on the arduino, and the data pin on the SHT75 goes to the digital pin "10" on the arduino. For this step we won't be soldering anything. Simply connect the pins/holes to the arduino using some jumper wire and a breadboard if necessary. Never turn on the power to the arduino until you use a multimeter to test resistance or continuity so you can identify any shorts or cross overs.



Once things are connected and you are sure there are no shorts, etc. you can now upload the code to the arduino that you downloaded from the earlier step. If you are using the SHT75 as opposed to the SHT15 you must enable the arduino's pull up resistors, you can find out how to do this on the main arduino site (basically set the data pin to HIGH on input). If you connected everything correctly and the code is properly updated, you should be retrieving the humidity and temperature levels now!!



Step 4: Connecting things together

Once you are done with your initial testing and you are satisfied with your end results you will want to connect the wires permanently to the sensor chip. You should use solder to do this. I will first go into what I did with the SHT75 and then briefly talk about the SHT15. I unfortunately broke the pins off accidentally because I have shaky hands and I'm very impatient so I had to solder the cables to the actual pads where the pins used to be connected. I don't suggest breaking the pins off like me, learn from my mistakes. :) There are also 4 tiny holes above the pins that will pick up electric current as well. I don't suggest using these either, unless you have to (ie. one of the pads breaks off while soldering a cable to it).

Once you have the pins/cables soldered, you will want to test everything again before making the connections more solid. When you have tested them again, making sure you still retrieve the humidity and temperature, I suggest wrapping each individual pin with heat shrink wrap, hot gluing the connections, then wrapping the overall connections with another piece of heat shrink wrap. During each of these steps I stopped before I got too much further and tested out the program again. You don't want to end up with solder, glue, and heat shrink wrap and then find out that it doesn't work since you probably won't be able to tell which step caused an issue. I also put color coded heat shrink wrap around each individual wire so I knew which cable went to the corresponding pins on the sensor.




The SHT15 is a lot easier to work with and you have a couple of options there as long as you buy it in the breakout board from sparkfun.com. The breakout board from sparkfun.com makes it really easy to get access to the pins by use of four holes. You could solder some pins on these holes and leave it connected to a bread board, solder some pins on and then solder some wires to it, or solder some wires directly to the holes. Anyway you do it, would be a tad easier than the SHT75. The SHT75 is a little cheaper and the relative humdity on the SHT75 is a tad bit more accurate, so these are the plus/negatives to each sensor (the SHT15 is 2% accurate whereas the SHT75 is 1.8% accurate).

Now you are on your way to placing your Tweetidor into your humidor! The next steps will focus on presentation and what I used to display the graphs, etc.


Step 5: Presentation

Now that we have everything together, we could technically just sit the arduino in the humidor and be done with it but a few problems arise from this. For one, it doesn't look very appealing. Other problems also arise including, how are you going to get the usb cable or wires inside the humidor and be able to close it, and also you run a risk of distilled water being spilt on the arduino, someone crushing it, or the wires coming lose. I came up with a few hokey ways to prevent these from happening (I'm not a very good handyman, I'm a computer geek) but you could probably devise your own methods.

The first step is to figure out if the arduino will sit outside of the humidor or in it. I put it in there so I didn't have it sitting out and running the risk of it getting knocked over or grabbed at (I have 4 kids, 3 of which are 3 years of age and under). I found out that the arduino fits perfectly inside a marlboro cigarette box (not the soft pack) so I decided to use this as my "case". I may paint it later or upgrade to something more durable but this definitely gets the job done. I poked a hole where the USB port is, and a hole on the top so the sensor sticks out. This also allows me to stack cigars on top of this too. I really need to get a larger humidor for this project but I'm poor, homeless and addicted to crack so I can't afford one (ok I lied about all of those but I do have 4 kids like I mentioned earlier so money is pretty tight).



Since the USB cable is pretty thick, it won't shut in the humidor correctly. At first I tried cutting a tiny notch on the side of the humidor but that wasn't good enough. I ended up deciding to drill a hole in the back of the humidor, stick the USB cable through that, then I used weather caulking around the cable to seal up the hole to keep my precious humidity at an acceptable level (it seems to stay at 67% right now which is pretty good).



Overall, this method worked out the best and from the outside of the humidor you just see one cable coming out from the back and going to my PC which has a wireless card in it to connect to the internet. The caulking job isn't the best (again, I'm not a handyman) but still looks pretty decent. You can pretty much do a million different things here to set it up, the arduino also has tiny holes so it can mounted to something inside the humidor too and I might do that once I get a larger humidor. My next project may be to call upon my father in law to build my own cabinet humidor.


Step 6: Connecting the Tweetidor to the web

You can actually tackle this several different ways but the one thing you will definitely need is an interface to communicate to the serial console that the arduino is interfaced on. I used a perl library I found online which worked out nicely. My Tweetidor's PC is an old 500 mhz with 256 megs of ram, a 10 gig hard drive, and running Ubuntu 9.04 server edition. I used code similar to this: code.

Once you have the arduino talking to the PC using some sort of serial console library like the perl one above, you can output that data to a text file and manipulate it however you'd like. You could set up a cron job or schedule to mail you, tweet you, or collect the data into a database and graph it out like I did. If you want to create graphs and gauges from a database, the easiest and most visually appealing (in my opinion) is the google chart api which is what I used. It's pretty easy to create and manipulate to what you need it for. For the database, I used mysql for the database and the php twitter api for twitter. I set the Tweetidor to update my database and twitter every hour. If it gets below 60% humidity it alerts me with a "wife alert" saying the humidor has been opened and it also alerts me if the temp/humidity gets too high. I'm probably going to set twitter to update every two hours instead so it doesn't bother me as much.


So there you have it. Pretty simple once you understand the basics and it's not entirely too expensive to do. I've heard of someone else buying something like this premade and they payed over 700 dollars for it!! Again, you can email me at tweetidor@gmail.com with any questions or comments. If you are feeling sorry for how slow I am or you think the project is cool, you can also donate money if you'd like. :) You can donate by clicking here: Donate!





You can transform your old school hygrometer into a new advanced digital precision hygrometer in no time! Thanks for your time.

Camping... FAIL

I planned a trip to the red river gorge with some friends. Things didn't go exactly as planned, in fact, almost everything that could go wrong did go wrong. Even more so, even things that you would think couldn't go wrong did. We did have some fun, but overall the trip was a dud and it needs to be redone right, so I'll probably plan another trip very soon that I hope should go right this time. Either way, the following is a list of the highlights including all of the FAIL moments.

Step 1: Get a large group of people together to go camping... FAIL

I invited about ten or more people and we ended up with five people, one of which couldn't even stay longer than one day. Most people had to work, watch kids, or just plain bailed out at the last minute.


Jackass #1: This guy just plain bailed on us

















Jackass # 2: This guy had to work, nice bloody excuse...










Jackass # 3: This guy also had to work, pfffft, yeah right!!






















Other Jackasses not listed in picutre: Joey and Brian

Step 2: Leave on time!! FAIL

The most important part of camping is leaving on time to set up your campsite, finding the right campsite, and actually DOING something the first night you are there. This all failed miserably. We didn't actually leave Ohio until 5:00 P.M. because we were lazy, unorganized, and had to run extra errands that were not originally planned (AHEM.. Erick). We didn't even get to the campsite until 10:00 P.M. This was AFTER parking in a campsite we thought wasn't taken but was, being stopped by a ranger, and getting stuck in dirt and having to use four wheel drive to get out. Putting up tents in the dark sucks!

Step 3: Properly load up the camping gear on top of the car... FAIL

That's right. We're stupid. We loaded coolers, sleeping bags, and supplies on top of my SUV but didn't use the racks. By not using the racks, we caused a dent in my SUV's roof. We had to stop along the way in to unload everything on top, pop out the dent and use the racks like we were supposed to in the first place.






















Step 4: Find the right campsite (more on this later) FAIL:

Not only was it dark because we got there late, but our campsite was basically a field with nothing but HUGE weeds/flowers which made my allergies kick in full gear. We had to hack down tons of them to even clear the path. There was no fire pit, and the ground was so hard that we couldn't even get the stakes into the ground for the tents so we had to just weigh them down with coolers and other things.

Step 5: Don't forget anything...

I forgot a lot of things, as did everyone else. We had to buy a bunch of stuff from the local gas station/convenient store. Not only did I forget stuff at home, I forgot to grab a bag of ice that I bought from the convenient store that night! FAIL

Step 6: Don't go hiking with someone who is sick

My friend Erick was so sick that he complained the ENTIRE time we went on a trail. Every little hill, bump, step, rock, twig, bug, etc. was a nusance to him for some reason and he had to let everyone know about it at ALL TIMES. I think I might have almost puked once at the amount of complaining he was doing. Erk... it wasn't THAT bad! Also, you don't need to wash your hands after getting dirty dude, it's frakking camping!!

Erick resting for about the 20th time (I stopped counting)






















Step 7: Don't camp on private property!! FAIL

We didn't know it was private property, but the ranger and sheriff sure made an effort to show up and tell us. This is when the camping trip ended. Apparently we were on private property and they told us that we had to move our camp site somewhere else. Yeah right, we were not about to take down EVERYTHING, load it up, try to find a campsite (all were taken anyways), unload everything again, and set up camp AGAIN in the dark like the night before. Getting the camp site set up at midnight with enough time for a 1 hour fire and roasted hot dogs is not my idea of a blast, especially on the last night we were supposed to be there. Also, the sheriff gave us a hard time. He was trying to find drugs on us which we did NOT have. He found some little white pegs that went to a camp chair and asked if they were pills, smelled my tupperware salt/pepper shaker asking if there was drugs in it, and accused us of drinking (which we were going to do but hadn't done so yet).

Apparently salt and pepper are abusive drugs now:























Thus ends the camping trip. We had to stop to fix the load on my car, we were late, had to set up our tent in dark, camped in an nightmare area for someone with allergies, camped on private property and kicked off by the police, had friends bail on us, friends who complained on hikes and were clean freaks during camping, forgot stuff before and during the camping trip, and to top it all off I didn't get to drink any beer or smoke a cigar!! Though the camping trip sucked there was a few good moments when we hiked in the gorge and scaled a large rock/mountain formation called the indian staircase. All in all, I still got to spend a small amount of time with friends away from society for a day or so and got to do some hiking I wouldn't normally be able to do with the kids around. Below are a couple of pictures from the highlights of the trip:
































Here is a link to the full album: http://www.flickr.com/photos/wolfspirittt/sets/72157622270226242/

Oliva Serie O Maduro

Brand: Oliva
Size: Robusto 5x50
Wrapper: Maduro Nicaraguan
Binder: Nicaraguan
Filler: Nicaraguan
Price: $105 for a box of 20 on Cigar International's site

The Oliva Serie O Maduro was a bit of a surprise to me. I actually got these cigars by purchasing two "mystery" 5 packs from Cigar International on their daily Joe Cigar deals. I wasn't sure what to expect when I opened up the package, but I had a smile on my face once I got through the packaging. I've smoked the Serie V and G before but never had the opportunity to try the Serie O. I'm glad I took a chance with these because I was very pleased with the smokes.

The Serie O maduro is a Nicaraguan Puro from all habano seed. The wrapper is VERY dark and the aroma is very strong to boot. I've already smoked through all 10 of these sticks and may have to purchase some again, but I'll wait to find out what the Cain tastes like when I go to the local cigar tastings next week.

First Impressions and First Puffs:

The construction is very well done. The wrapper is very dark and oily and the smell from the foot of the cigar gives off hints of chocolate and spice. From the first few puffs I am getting a nice white tight ash, and the smoke is pretty smooth. I can tell it will be a very dark cigar as I go throughout but it's also very smooth. The first tastes my palate is picking up on are spices and gingerbread.

First Third:

The draw is a bit airy, and I'm not getting a full mouth of smoke from it but I think that will change. The construction is holding up nicely and the spiciness flavors are still there. I'm also getting a hint of coffee bean.

Halfway mark:

The draw is still a bit airy but has gotten a lot better. The full flavored smoke is kicking in and the spiciness and coffee notes remain. I am really digging this cigar so far.

Final Third and Thoughts:

The full flavored smoke is definitely apparent now and the draw is treating me nicely. The construction has held up with no problems throughout the smoke and I'm smoking it down to the nub. It's getting a little hot but manageable. :) The finish of this cigar is very nice with the spiciness and coffee notes staying evident the entire time and the ash is holding strong.

Overall, this is a very good smoke. I've always been happy with the other "Serie" cigars from Oliva and I'll add this one to my list as well. The draw was a bit airy in the beginnings but picked up toward the end. The spicy notes, and oily wrapper help make this a strong smoke but smooth sailing. I got these on a deal for about 3 bucks a stick but you can pick them up for about 5-6 bucks a stick at your local B&M. I'm waiting to reserve my judgment on whether I need to repurchase these or go with a box of the new Cain sticks that just came out. Be sure to check out my review on those next week sometime.

Lazy Man's Review - Victor Sinclair Rare Connecticut

Brand: Victor Sinclair
Size: Torpedo
Wrapper: Connecticut Domincan
Binder: ??
Filler: Cuban seed long filler Dominican Republic
Price: box of 20 mixed for $35.00 http://www.thompsoncigar.com/catalog/product.jsp?productId=73617

I'm going the lazy man's route this time around and thought I would just post my audio notes up instead of typing out the entire review. It's also a chance for everyone to hear my heavenly voice. :) Actually, it was really just a chance to mess around with some audio editing tools as I prep for the new Long Ashes podcast we will be releasing soon.

The Victor Sinclair Rare Connecticut is part of Thompson Cigars "exclusive" line. This is similar to CI's purple label cigars. Several well known cigar manufacturers will make a new/special blend for the store that you can't buy anywhere else. Although I thought this was a decent cigar all around, I wasn't really wowed with any complex flavors and I wasn't impressed enough to consider buying these again. I did, however, enjoy trying out the punch on top of the torpedo cut for the first time. Listed below are the complete audio notes for the review. Enjoy!

Victor Sinclair MP3

Super Premium Seconds

Brand: Punch Rothschild seconds
Size: 4.5 x 50 Rothschild
Wrapper: ??
Binder: ??
Filler: ?? CI says a Honduran blend with long fillers
Price: bundle of 25 for $29.95 http://tinyurl.com/ml7c3s

I'm always on the hunt for the perfect everyday cigar. Ever since I got my smoking room I usually smoke about 1 cigar a day and on the weekends about two every day. Being married with 4 kids, I can't afford to smoke the premiums every day like some cigar superstars on twitter @jcruz :) . So instead, I settle for good but not great. With the super premium seconds though, this is hands down the best everyday cigar I have smoked. You can't even really tell you paid less than 2 bucks for these smokes. The construction of them do have some problems about every third or fourth one you smoke because the cap likes to come off, but it usually doesn't happen until the end of the smoke so it's an acceptable issue (for a cheap cigar; if I paid 4 dollars or more for these then I would have issues with that.)

First Third:

The body of the cigar looks very decent. The construction in general looks well done but you can tell the cap is a little loose and might have issues later on in the smoke. The smell is very strong and prominent of chocolate and creme and the feel of the stick is very decent (held together good and well humidified thanks to my expert skill in humidification :P ). The first couple of puffs are really good, I tasted a sweetness and can tell the overall smoke will probably be a medium to full bodied smoke. The ash was a gray color and pretty tight overall.

Middle of smoke:

The smoke got a but stronger now and the sweetness went away. The taste can be more defined by a grassy, earthy taste. The construction is still holding up and usually does at this point of the smoke. The draw of the smoke is a bit tight and that seems to be the case on these on every other smoke, but nothing preventing the air flow completely.

Final puffs:

It's starting to get a little stronger and a bit hot. The full flavor is kicking in now. The construction is still holding up though this is usually when every third stick will lose it's cap and start to unravel. it's not a huge problem since the price of these sticks are so cheap.

Overall it's a very good everyday smoke and I would recommend it to anyone. The other cheap cigars I've smoked usually suffer from short fillers that are loose that leave for a soggy cigar that have a horrible airy draw and I was pleased that these are more closer to a standard premium that don't have those problems.

Up

Review for the Kiddies

Up is a fantastic, exciting voyage to South America! With a magic flying house, grouchy grandpa-type Carl Fredricksen and his little buddy Russell explore the jungle, meet a funny talking dog, and save a giant bird from a crazy old man in a zepplin! Featuring lots of laughs and some surprisingly tense action, Up isn't for super-young kids, but any child over 5 will have a whole flying house full of fun!

Review for Grownups

Up spends its first 20 minutes or so grinding away at its protagonist's life so savagely that it may reduce you to tears. Carl marries his childhood sweetheart, and in short cinematic order their lives rush by. Unable to have the children they desire, Carl and his wife Ellie pin their dreams on an eventual voyage to Venezuela, one she does not live to see. Crushed and alone, Carl spends all day in his house, talking to his dead wife while a heartless and marginalizing city grows up around him. Eventually, he is committed to a home, and realizing he has nothing to lose in death, flies his house on the voyage his dead wife always wanted to take. Carl's flying house and the film's other aeronautic hijinks show more than a passing Hayao Miyazaki inspiration, which is to be expected due to his close relationship with Pixar exec John Lasseter.

Carl is accompanied on his trek by Russell, a boyscout whose enthusiasm for nature is motivated by the love of a father who has long since abandoned him. The villain of the film is Carl's boyhood hero, a man so lonely and obsessed that he seems less genuinely evil and more completely pitiable. Behind most of the film, these undertones of losing people and ideas we love can be felt in how the characters act and what they do. The whole movie is built on foundations of sorrow.

You might think this would make Up a sad movie, and it does, but it also makes its many happy moments stand out that much more clearly. The movie draws strong, heartfelt performances from all the members of its talented cast, and had, to me, no slip-ups on its way. And don't worry: if you've seen the short film The Ark, and about halfway through Up you start to worry it'll end the same way- it doesn't. You can relax. Unlike Pixar's other movies, Up probably won't have a lot of commercial visibility. There will be some product tie-ins, but many companies have already publicly shied from the film. The reason is pretty obvious; ageism is an established thing in movies and just because Pixar rose above it doesn't mean companies will.

In short: Up is a moving, sophisticated film that will appeal to adults and children on totally different levels and shines above other kids cinema on the market as a complex narrative on human feelings and behavior.

9/10

Camacho Connecticut

Brand: Camacho
Size: 7.0" x 48 (churchill)
Wrapper: Ecudorian Connecticut
Binder: Honduras
Filler: Honduras and Dominican
Price: MSRP $170.00 box of 25

The Camacho Connecticut is a sneaky little devil. On the outside it appears as your standard light Connecticut wrapper which normally gives you the impression that the filler is also light. This is where you are wrong. The Camacho Connecticut is full of spiciness with periods of creaminess which is subtle enough to balance out the smoke and provides a very interesting yet tasty experience.

I picked up the Camacho Connecticut from the Party Source Davidoff tastings a couple of weeks ago and didn't even realize I had put it in my humidor until yesterday (shame on me). So without much thought, I snagged it out and prepared to smoke.

First Third:

At first glance the cap of the cigar is very prominent. You can tell that this cigar was constructed very well. The cigar has a nice aroma too it, almost creamy like. The wrapper looks to provide a smooth smoke. The first few puffs has an incredibly smooth draw and smooth taste, yet has a bite too it. The darker tobaccos mixed with the lighter wrapper really compliment each other well. Near the end of the first third the spiciness tends to die down and sticks with a more smooth and creamy taste which is welcomed nicely.

Halfway Point:

The smoothness continues, and the burn is still very even. The draw is excellent and I haven't had any problems smoking it thus far. The herbal spiciness returned with hints of cedar mixed in as well.

Finale:

The cigar is now a lot darker and you can definitely rate this as medium bodied, maybe even a bit more than that. Though the cigar has gotten darker (which I normally prefer anyway), the smoothness of the wrapper continues to complement the fillers which creates a very interesting smoking experience. I don't want to put it out. :)


The Camacho Connecticut is an excellent cigar and I would probably rate it as one of my top 10 cigars as of recent, along with the Cuvee Rouge which is also an excellent cigar. Camacho has created a very interesting smoke with the light/dark mixture and the creaminess/spiciness of the cigar will definitely leave your palate excited throughout and wanting more once you are done. :) Good job Camacho!

Felipe Gregorio Icon Groucho Marx

Brand: Felipe Gregorio
Size: 5.0" x 55 (robusto)
Wrapper: Costa Rica
Binder: Costa Rica (double wrapper)
Filler: Mixed cuban seed (Condega, Nicaragua and Dominican Republic)
Price: MSRP $49.95 box of 20

I bought a box of these after discovering the Felipe Gregorio fat boy. The fat boy was my first introduction to Felipe Gregorio's line and I really enjoyed it. It intrigued me to try the other blends that Felipe had, so I started doing some research. Felipe Gregorio seems to specialize in the exotic Figurado shapes and unique blends. This holds true for his Icon line of cigars as well, which seems to be a mid-low priced cigar. I was able to pick up a box of 20 of these from http://cigarbid.com for only 37 bucks plus shipping. I've smoked more than half of them and I think I can give a fair review on the Groucho now after going through a few trial and tribulations with this smoke.

First Third:

This cigar starts out strong and bold, which is a good thing. It has an oily wrapper which seems to give it a bit of a creamy coffee type of taste. I could taste hints of spice as well in the beginnings of this smoke. One thing that was a major problem for me when I first got these was the draw. I couldn't draw anything from it. I think I almost sucked my eye balls out of my sockets to get even a pinch of smoke, and the only way to somewhat remedy this was to use a draw poker. Jerry Cruz from the "stogie review" also mentioned to me that he had heard this from his local B&M.

Luckily after sitting in my humidor for awhile they have gotten better, but the draw problems still exist somewhat. Other than the draw problems I had early on, the beginnings of this cigar is very flavorful and enjoyable. The burn is very even and the construction on these cigars are top notch.

Halfway Point:

Toward the halfway point of this stick the strong full bodied flavor tends to mellow a bit and is more in the medium bodied range in my opinion. This is not to say that the tastes from before are no longer there, it's more so that the spiciness leaves for a bit. The coffee creaminess still sticks around which makes for a nice smooth smoke. There weren't any burn or construction problems, though the draw can still be troublesome if your batch turned out like mine.

Finale:

The finale of this smoke picks up it's spiciness from the beginning more than ever, and finishes as a full bodied smoke. Most of the creaminess flavors kind of die down toward the end and you are left with a true full flavored, full bodied smoke. The draw issues seem to subside toward the end of the stick even on my most troublesome sticks. The burn stays even until the end, and none of the 10 or so I have smoked have unraveled on me which wins many points in my book. Even the best of cigars have construction issues sometimes so this was a very nice surprise.


Overall, the icon line of cigars (specifically the Groucho in this case) are a decent smoke and well worth the price. The price really sells this stick and I can see myself buying them again in the future as an every day smoke. The draw issues are a definite problem and my only suggestion if you want to brave a box of these for yourself, is to over humidify them a bit (not too much!). That seemed to help with mine. The construction of the cigar and even burn impressed me as well. So far Felipe Gregorio seems to be pleasing me with what I've smoked of his cigars. I look forward to trying out and reviewing more of his cigars in the future.

Cusano LXI Habano Sun Grown

Brand: Cusano
Size: 5.0 x 50 (robusto)
Wrapper: Double wrapper Ecuadorian sun grown
Binder: part of double wrapper
Filler: Mixed Ligero tobacco
Price: MSRP $4.93 a stick

I picked up this cigar from the recent Cusano cigar tastings and wasn't sure what to expect. This is apparently the first full bodied smoke from Cusano but I'm not sure how true that is. Cusano is normally in the light to medium bodied realm of cigars. An Ecuadorian sun grown leaf with a double wrapper makes for a smooth smoke. The richness of this cigar is very prominent and it's a very good competitor for other full bodied smokes currently on the market.

First Third:

The cigar started out with a very full flavor and earthy tones. I'm not sure what happened but the burn was a bit uneven at first. It eventually started to even itself out after about 10 minutes or so into it though so no harm no foul.

Halfway Point:

The cigar really started to pick up on it's full flavor now but still had a smoothness to the smoke and draw. The construction of the cigar held up very well and there were no burn issues or unraveling going on at this point. My buddy also smoked this with me and his started to come apart a bit but that may be due to his cutting too much into the cap of the stick. Toward the midway point I started picking up more of a spiciness to the stick which complimented the sun grown wrapper very well.

Finale:

More of the spiciness started to hit my tongue and my palate was full of flavor at this point. As I was nearing the end, I was disappointed that I had to put it out (as most smokers probably understand) but it finished nicely.


I love full bodied cigars and this one is definitely up there as a contender. I would most definitely buy this stick again in the future. Cusano has a winner here with an excellent introduction into the full bodied cigar market. I look forward to seeing more full bodied options from Cusano in the future.

Guyver: Dark Hero

It's always dicey adapting a cartoon for live action. Finding real people who look like cartoon characters is hard, as is replicating the unrealistic feats that animated characters are capable of in a  believable way. This problem is doubled when you try to adapt animation from Japan, where the prominence of animated cinema arose specifically in order to depict wild stunts and crazy monsters that Japanese film companies of the early-mid 20th century had neither the money nor the real estate to film.

The Guyver is kind of a media dynasty. There's comic books, movies, TV shows, and, one would assume, cuddly Guyver plushes. For those not in the know, the Guyver is a suit of armor aliens built in order to shove humans inside and make cheap frontline soldiers for their horrific space wars. The prototypes rebelled and the aliens left Earth, leaving behind some dormant Guyver suits and an army of angry, lonesome mutant soldiers. Everyone wants a Guyver suit of their own, but predictably plucky young people get most of them. Rather like Power Rangers, said hero wanders about encountering danger, transforming with their armor, and kicking lots of faces. Because the Guyver is dark and edgy, there's lots of blood and screaming and the suit comes out of you eww gross yuck! It's kind of an adult cartoon, as envisioned by ten year olds.

Dark Hero follows the original properties as well as it can with no budget. Sean (Solid Snake) has what he believes to be the only Guyver suit. It makes him run around fighting crime, even though he'd rather just sit around his filthy apartment doodling in his dream journal. When he sees some symbols on television that he believes are related to the Guyver suit, he sets off for Utah to visit an archaelogical dig. Wouldn't you know it, an entire corporation of bad guys in rubber monster suits is after the dig as well, and it's up to Sean to pretty much kill every last one of them as savagely as rubber suit science permits.

Coming up since small times on the 60s-70s Godzilla films, I really got into this film. The suits are surprisingly good, and the Guyver armor is pretty on-model with the anime. The fights are pretty decent too, although there's a surprising amount of non-fighting and it isn't particularly interesting. Sean whines and moans about having awesome alien space armor that lets him shoot lasers out of his head, he romances an average-looking archaeologist, and some stuff happens with the FBI. But none of that matters because this is a guys in rubber suits hitting each other movie, and it totally delivers.

Actually, it may deliver too well. The violence in Dark Hero can be surprisingly graphic, and contrasted with the rather silly-looking suitework the effect is sort of confusing. It's like if you were watching Sesame Street, and Big Bird pecked out Grover's eyes. But if you can get past that, Guyver: Dark Hero offers something interesting: a live action anime adaptation that is both entertaining and faithful to its source materials.

6/10 (bump it up to 7/10 if you're like me and giggle with glee when dudes in rubber suits body slam each other)

Churchill Deluxe

Brand: Caribe
Size: 7.0 x 48
Wrapper: Honduras
Binder: Honduras
Filler: Mixed
Price: MSRP $39.95 Box of 50

I just smoked another Churchill deluxe. These are a pretty good everyday cigar. For 80 cents a stick you can’t beat the value. CI has these in a bundle of 50 for 40 bucks. A Honduras blend with mostly seconds for a filler. Compared to most cheapies these have a good burn and are decently smooth. I recommend these over others such as the del tu dos.

Rating: 6/10

Felipe Gregorio Fatboy

This is an excellent cigar. I picked up the Felipe Gregorio because I saw a deal on it at my local cigar shop. I had never heard of it but it was such a small smoke that I figure I would try it out over a lunch break. I’m glad I did, as it was probably one of the better cigars I’ve had in a long time.

The fatboy is a smaller cigar similar to Oliva’s nub but with a slightly smaller ring gauge (55). It has a very good draw to it and the construction of the cigar is excellent. It burned smooth throughout the whole smoke as well. This is a very tasty cigar with hints of cream and caramel flavors.

The entire smoke was enjoyable with it’s rich flavor and spicy ending. I will definitely be picking up more of these though I think I will be going for the bigger ones next time.

I give the Felipe Gregorio Fat Boy a 8/10

Nub habano torpedo

The nub line of cigars from oliva are excellent smokes. Small in length but large in ring gauge, and packed very tight with tobacco makes for a very long slow burning cigar. You may think that this is a quickie but you will be surprised. I last reviewed the Connecticut and the same praise I gave also applies to the habano.

The habano is a darker version of the Connecticut which is more up my alley. You will still find hints of cedar but with more of a nutty chocolate flavor. There is a maduro nub coming out soon and I wish I would have grabbed the pre-release version that they were offering with the box but decided against it (I’m poor damnit!).

I once bought a box of these (contains an odd 24 which is not normal for most cigars) and smoked them within a months time. This cigar offers a nice draw, slow burn, thick smoke, full flavored taste, and is a good cigar for just relaxing with a beer (wait, aren’t all cigars?).

I give the nub line of cigars from oliva a 9/10 and the habano a 9/10.

Nub Connecticut torpedo

I had the pleasure of trying out a couple of nub cigars from oliva last night at the nub cigar event. I bought a box of nub’s once before (the habanos), so I already kind of knew what to expect.

Nub is a small cigar length wise but ring gauge wise, it’s very big. It’s also packed really tight with tobacco, which makes for a very slow burn. It’s also been said that if you leave the ash on your nub, it’s packed so tight that you can actually stand the cigar up on it’s ash (yes, I’ve tried it, and yes you can) I’ve never had a problem with a nub going out on me or breaking up.

The burn is even and the draw is very smooth. Thick white clouds of smoke come from the nub . The Connecticut is a milder more smoother smoke which is ok by me. I’m normally into the darker cigars but I was able to enjoy this one equally the same, based on the nice draw it produced. Hints of cedar are mixed in with the nutty flavor of the Connecticut.

I give nubs in general a 9/10 and this one gets an 8/10