On coffee and hibernation

I find it somewhat ironic that the last post before a 4-year hiatus was a goal to post more often.

Eh, life happens.

Coffee

For a few years now, I have been regularly roasting coffee in my kitchen.

My setup: natural gas cooktop, deep frying pan (this one) a colander, a fan, a whisk, and some green coffee beans from Sweet Maria's coffee in Oakland.

I measure out between 6 and 10oz of beans (about 3/4 to 1.25 cups), get the pan hot enough to bounce a drop of water, then pour in the beans and whisk them until the crackling starts to slow down, or the smoke alarm goes off, whichever comes first, hah.
I then pour the very hot beans and chaff into a colander and take them outside to blow off the chaff and cool.
I never liked coffee until I started making these roasts - my wife is a real lover of coffee, and I wanted to make something nice for her. It's spiraled into a small hobby for me, I have 7 varieties of green beans on hand at the moment and enjoy making different blends and roasts, to see how the flavors change.

My favorite so far have all been blends that are mostly dry-process ethiopian arabica; I find that straight dry-process is just too ... bold (I guess?) for me, but if I cut it a bit with some clean-cupping mild beans the interesting flavors are preserved and I'm not overwhelmed.

Just finished a 2:1 blend of DP Yirga Cheffe Konga (ethiopian dry process) with some Honduran beans, roasted fairly light - the crackling hadn't begun to taper off, but I felt like it was no longer increasing. Feedback has been fairly positive, and positive feedback really helps.

Val's, a first impression/review

Went to Val's in Hayward last night for burgers and shakes.

Burger: Medium rare, nicely cooked. Toppings were extra but that's fine. Cheese was good, grilled onions were good, patty was good, french roll was nicely toasted. Grade: B+

Onion rings: Perfectly cooked, sweet onions, nice and chewy, great batter. Grade: A

Fries: Steakfries were cooked fully, but still a bit soft. Potatoes were nice. Not enough salt, but salt was available at the table. Grade: C+, I will ask for well-done fries next time.

Shakes: I had a chocolate malt, the wife had a strawberry. The shakes were a delight. Smooth, well flavored, and really more than we could drink. Watching the guy make the shakes was also awesome. Grade: A

Seating: Diner-style. Small, fairly crowded, but I didn't feel the press. Friendly, family atmosphere, nice service. Grade: A-

Overall: B+/A-
Will eat there again. Need to try the breakfast!

Tesla's Birthday

Today is Nikola Tesla's Birthday (Thanks, Google main page)

A man of genius, recognized in his own life - but he died in poverty. What lessons can we learn from Tesla's life?

Read for yourself and decide. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nikola_Tesla

The life sucker

I started playing WoW again. I'm not a wow blogger, not really a blogger at all if this repository is any indication. But, that's what is sucking my life away at the moment.

So much for good intentions

So yeah, posting every day.

Yeah, right.

I'm currently suffering from a woeful case of ennui. So, we'll see.

so intricate...

I find myself thinking lately about how my standard of living is completely dependent upon factors which I have no control over. This intricate web of dependencies; computers, cars, HVAC systems, and on and on - I wonder what would happen if it all fell down?

What if Y2K wasn't an overblown joke? What if we woke up one morning and nothing worked anymore? What would we do? Doesn't the Mayan calendar predict the world ending in 2012?

I'm 200 miles from a place where I might have a chance to survive in the Y2K case. I could probably walk 20 miles in a day for an extended period - but there's either a bridge or an ominously named valley to go through (The Hungry Hollow Hills doesn't strike me as having gained thier name by being a pleasant place to spend a summer). Such choke points are likely to be controlled by unscrupulous persons. 10 days to get to safety... I think I could do it. Only issue would be food and water supplies.

Simulating such a trek would probably make a pretty cool game.

Ennui and the engineer

I shouldn't be writing this.

I should be working.

Yeah, that's going well.

Think of this as a 'get the ball rolling' post. I want to post something every day, whether it's useful/relevant/insightful or just a waste of my time, to get back in the habit of writing, of putting my thoughts down.

How about them brooklyn dodgers? are they bums, or what?
You can have a cookie if you get that reference.

They are tasty, tasty cookies.