As i mentioned a few days back, I was down with the flu for a few days and I’ve been pretty busy, playing catch up with all the lost time.
I got some more of the fine Mama Bear shaving soaps on Monday afternoon, so I broke open the package and selected Crème Brûlée for the evening. Wow, this one is a nice scent! I grabbed the Super Speed with a well-used Sputnik blade and had a fine shave, followed up with Pinaud Clubman aftershave. I checked back and this was shave number eight on the Sputnik blade, but it was still producing a very close shave.
Last evening, I looked through the new Mama Bear offerings and decided on Toasted Coconut, which is another really nice scent. I decided to use my Merkur 23C, loaded with a Derby Extra Super. Another really enjoyable shave, followed by a bit of Mama Bear’s bay rum-scented Winter aftershave.
This evening, I grabbed my tube of Proraso Green. I have really become a bog fan of the Mama Bear shaving soaps, but I’m still a Proraso fan. I decided to go back to the Sputnik blade and my Super Speed and I finally noticed the blade was not feeling quite so smooth as it had. Then again, the Proraso did its job, so there the shave was minus any burn or nicks. Tonight’s aftershave was the Clubman Virgin Island Bay Rum.
I think it is safe to say the Sputnik blade has out-lived its usefulness. It’s pretty hard to argue with a blade that was still producing great shaves after eight uses, however. The next order I place with Barbieria Italiana will include some more Sputniks, that much is certain.
I believe I’ve mentioned this before, but it bears repeating. I had e-mailed Giovanni at Barbieria Italiana about an Omega brush that would do well with both soaps and creams. Giovanni suggested a 33175 Omega and his advice was spot-on. The brush produces mountains of lather with soaps and I believe it works a bit better with creams. If you’re looking for a nice badger brush with a really attractive price, you’re not going to go wrong with this brush.
After a few years of putzing around with the operation of AZTech Consulting as a sole proprietorship, I finally made the decision to form an LLC.
The company was originally established to do minor bits of Web development work, but we’re now concentrating our efforts more on performing vBulletin forum and WordPress blog installations, configurations and modifications.
I am now in the process of developing the AZTech Consulting Web site, so potential customers will be able to see the services we offer.
In addition to offering professional installations of both vBulletin and WordPress, we also configure the scripts for our customers, install add-ons and plugins, optimize these sites for better operation and also do work in the area of search engine optimization.
If you, or someone you know, is interested in setting up their own blog or forum, but lacks the necessary technical skills, please visit the AZTech Consulting site. We are currently offering a free WordPress installation for first-time bloggers.
As I mentioned in another entry, I have been a bit under the weather. But today, when I got back into work, there was a care package from Giovanni at Barbieria Italiana.
I actually wish I had snagged some Sputnik blades on this order 
, but I still had some nice surprises to unpack.
Since I am a bit of a push-over when it comes to bay rum, I ordered a bottle of Superior 70 bay rum. I tried some this evening and it was a very nice exclamation point on a very nice shave.
I also received a bottle of Constanza bay rum, which really has a pretty stout scent to it. I imagine I’ll give it a go tomorrow evening.
I also received a bottle of Murray & Lanman Florida Water cologne. Very alluring scent, one I am anxious to try.
On a lark, I had Giovanni send me a cube of the Savon de Marseille Palm Oil soap. I’ve noticed a lot of gents are using a technique known as ‘method shaving’, where a cube of olive oil soap provides the base for a very rich ’super’ lather, supplemented with a cream and an activating product. I thought I would try a cube of the palm oil soap, just as an experiment. The Barbieria Italiana Web site indicates this soap can be used as a shaving soap and Giovanni is certainly not fibbing on that count! A couple of swirls of the Omega brush on the cube loaded up the badger bristles nicely. Not wanting to be wasteful, I lathered up my face with it. All I can say is, "Wow!"
I’ve said this before and I’ll say it again – if you’re looking for a nice source of shaving supplies, you really need to visit the Barbieria Italiana Web site. Giovanni is a friendly gent, with excellent customer service. You may find some of his product lines are not the same, run-of-the-mill products that everyone else sells, but Giovanni provides those of us in North America an excellent opportunity to discover some outstanding European shaving products. I give Giovanni two thumbs up.
Sorry to have missed a few days, but I was caught up in the outbreak of the flu that seems to have a grip on the country these last couple weeks.
I suppose I should go back through the entries on the blog to check, but I think tonight was the 5th shave with this Sputnik blade. A blade that really didn’t perform well in my Merkur 23C razor is working great in a Gillette Super Speed. And to think I had tried other blades in the Super Speed and hadn’t had much luck with them.
As well as a Derby Extra Super works in my Merkur, I think this Sputnik is working even better in the Super Speed.
I’m still feeling a bit down with the flu, but the two days beard growth was not going to let me skip another night. So I decided to pull out the stops and make the most of the evening’s shave.
I grabbed my lathering bowl, my Omega brush and a tub of Mama Bear’s Turkish Mocha shaving soap. A splash of hot water on the top of the soap and then the brush was set aside to soak in a bowl of water, whilst I treated myself to a couple of hot towels.
After another BBS shave and a cold rinse, I splashed on some Superior 70 Bay Rum that is just in from Giovanni at Barbieria Italiana.
And the result is another outstanding shave. I’ve tried stretching out the Derby Extra Super blades, but usually I start to see the results deteriorating on the fifth shave and the sixth is just out of the question. But this Sputnik seemingly refuses to lay down and die. Very impressive blade, very impressive indeed!
I’ve been using Windows Live Writer on a Windows box to prepare blog entries, for the last week or so. In that time, I’ve been looking for a desktop blog authoring system for my iMac, but much like everything else I’ve found for a Mac, they come with a price tag.
Windows has its faults, to be sure, but there sure is a lot of freeware available for Windows-based computers. Let me see, I can run a completely free installation of Live Writer on a Windows computer, or I can pay $17.95 to purchase ecto for my iMac.
ecto seems to be highly rated, but I’m going to step right up and say it looks like a skeleton, compared to Windows Live Writer. LW snags a blog’s theme, so you can see how an entry will appear, as you are preparing it. ecto provides a quite Spartan, e-mail type interface for entry. I think I’m going to be very happy this is a free trail of ecto, because I can see myself moving back to Live Writer in short order.
Actually, I can see this being my first and last Apple computer, as this iMac hasn’t really shown me much. Ubuntu Linux is just as simple to use and offers at least as many features. And there’s something about the price tags on Linux scripts and programs that really has me questioning the expense of the iMac. I’m not into graphics work, so I think the power of the iMac is going largely untapped on my desk.
It’s a pretty sad day when a Windows application outshines anything else, but facts are facts. My next entry will be prepared in Live Writer.
