This has been a pretty excited time for Brotherhood of the Bean, my Coffee product & culture blog. For a long time I have worked to develop it into a coffee resource that offers valuable product and culture insights. In truth it has been a lot of fun.

Some time ago I became aware of the 9rules blog network, from what I saw I knew it was the community for me. The problem was that thousands of others had the same idea. So I decided to sit back and enjoy the community while I waited for my application to be reviewed.

Along the way I found some of the most interesting people on the web, and with the newly available notes feature, I could communicate my thoughts with them. I thought it was pretty cool.

You can imagine my pride and excitement when I was invited to become a member. To have Brotherhood of the Bean recognized as being being of a high enough caliber for 9rules means a lot to me.

For those of you wondering what 9rules is all about:
9rules is a place where members and readers can connect, build relationships, gain exposure, learn new things, and have fun. 9rules started in 2003 with a set of 9 rules:

1. Love what you do.
2. Never stop learning.
3. Form works with function.
4. Simple is beautiful.
5. Work hard, play hard.
6. You get what you pay for.
7. When you talk, we listen.
8. Must constantly improve.
9. Respect your inspiration.

After having the Wii for a few months I can safely say that I am glad I made the purchase. At the same time I think buying the Xbox 360 first was the right choice too.

I say this not because the Wii isn’t revolutionary enough for me, but rather because in the end, fancy controller system aside, I am a sucker for mind shattering visuals. Let’s face it, the Wii is more about the physical enjoyment and less about the visual enjoyment of the game.

Last night for instance is a perfect example of why I love the Wii — We had a couple over who we are good friends with. It was a nice summer dinner outside in our backyard. We ate filet, drank ice cold beer. The ladies drank Mike’s Hard Margaritas (yum!) and the kids played in the blow up pool. All in all a great end to the weekend.

Now I am not the biggest sports fan, never really got into it, and as you can imagine my interest in sports games is almost non-existent — at least until we bought the Wii. With the Wii controller sports games take on a whole new dimension, they are actually fun.

So I suggested my friend give the Wii a try after dinner. He is a big time sport enthusiest, coaches teams, loves watching sports, etc. As expected he had a blst playing the Wii. He made the offhand suggestion that I should set it up in the garage for poker night.

I think that is a really cool idea — hook it up to a projector, rent some sport games. Somehow I think poker would take a backseat to the Wii. Given my penchant for losing, it might not be a bad thing!

Tonight I got to experience something wicked cool — my son’s first Tee-Ball game. Now forget what you are thinking — Tee-Ball? Is he serious?

Absolutely. Sure its an exercise in chaos theory, and its more about fun than hardcore baseball, but its something that will only happen one time. That’s pretty cool in my book. He had a great time, two decent hits and some great fielding opportunities.

As he would correct me after the game in the car, he had four hits to him, not three. Not to mention some good throws to first. Sure, I am gushing a bit right now, cut me some slack, it was pretty cool. Threw a few pictures in the old album should anyone want to take a peek.