Saturday Blues

Sitting next to young housewives reminds me that it is normal for "adults" to not understand how "children" think. Oh well.

I can empathise with falsity, and study truth, but trying to do both at the same time gives me a headache.

Choosing to study the wrong subject, at the wrong time, in the wrong place, is like subjecting oneself to brainrape by mongrels. LOL

Trying to debug a ledger while listening to plebs in the 95th %-ile get excited about what plebs in the 98th %-ile make; my favourite thing.

Don't you people get bored of being happy? What's wrong with your memories of happiness? I guess you don't have many...‪#‎humanCondition‬

Targeting

Reviewing rough targets I set 5 years ago. Over-performed on some, under-performed on others. It seems to have averaged out.

Planning and executing. Had a pretty good 15 year run. 6.6 months into the next phase, I'm ready for 10-20 years of this commercial shit. Then back to science. 10 if I'm lucky. 20 if I have to. Maybe death with take me first.

Attractiveness, Quantified?

Q: What kind of guy are you looking for?
A: Someone who won't leave me if I get more unattractive.

LOL

I think someone's been doing a disservice to the world by articulating "attractiveness," as an uncontrollable / fated matter. It really doesn't help anyone if it's required but not in spec.

It's like you meet the smartest people who know how to manage KPIs at their day-job, but don't understand the concept of KPIs in a relationship. Superlol.

Imperfect Prose

I once wrote an email to a the MD of a consulting firm that works closely with the government in Malaysia, asking for career advice. Not because I thought he would say anything useful, but because I wanted to know exactly how he would respond. He did reply the email, with trite advice, and it was full of typos. I did use it to rationalise slacking off on writing perfect prose ever-thereafter. I don't know. People are weird.

#emoHaterBait

Looking forward to more accounting today. Spent yesterday on it, and was so stressed by bedtime that (see #emoHaterBait).

You lose your memories, I don't really lose mine, but it's time I deleted those last two photos that I kept of you... ;) #emoHaterBait

Trained to make minds, and break them; if no one else can, then your work is a lonely task. Send your loved ones to happiness. #emoHaterBait

A fleeting heart, is the easiest subject, of influence - a willing medium of art. I brought you close, I let you go. Farewell. #emoHaterBait

If you call and she comes, you were lucky; intentions result from inaction - die fighting; if it wanders, she was meant to go. #emoHaterBait

She: I'm loyal. And I want it too. He: What does it mean? Say more. She: I don't think I can help you. He: I must go. She: Go. #emoHaterBait

I can't find the origin of this quote:

All Relationships Have One Law " Never Make The 0ne You Love Feel Alone... Especially When You're There... "

I've been told that I fail at this. But I think that's because I'm pretty much resigned to being "lonely" for life - and really, relationships are just where I look for people who feel the same. Strange.

Update: #emoStory

Zombie Movies Ironically Remind me of Real LIfe

Good lord, dramatic stories of love and family... how do people live mainly for such rank mundanity? I wish it were easier to just care so much about such trivia.

When I actually think of the statistical dominance of this preference, I literally feel like killing myself. It's like World War Z.

Ah well, I guess it has preserved the species.

So bored. But accounting is a liberal art, so on with its study. Hehehe.

Class distinctions: I intuitively think of folks with zero-dependent incomes over MYR 60,000/year as "upper-class". Lol

It's just an intuition - my family of three kids grew up on MYR 30k-ish/year, and we considered ourselves middle-class. So it's a description of my perception bias. Oh, lots of studies indicate that EVERYONE and their mom thinks that they're middle-class. The median HOUSEHOLD income in this country is some RM42k/year. No expert - just tossing old memories.

SOHO Espresso Gear for Malaysia

Current recommendations (client's opinion):

1) Short answer, no, we don't know any reliable second-hand espresso machine sellers.

2) Coffeeinmalaysia.com is the distributor for Vibiemme machines here. They take care of maintenance for those machines, if you buy one.

3) Vibiemme's the runner-up brand for home machines. The most preferred brand is Expobar (AU based).

4) "Commercial" vs "prosumer" vs "home" are more like promotional terms. You should consider some functional innards - like looking for EFI instead of carburetors in cars:

4.1) "Separate boilers" for steam wand and espresso group head - essential if you want to be use both at the same time. Most likely that you will, if a lot of people want lattes at the same time.

4.2) "E61 traditional lever group head" - guarantees that your group head does a "preinfusion" - meaning that it wets the puck of grounds, before ramping up to full 9-bar pressure - this make the extraction more consistent/controllable.

4.3) For example, these machines take care of both concerns in 4.1. and 4.2.

Vibiemme (VBM) Domobar Super Double Boiler
Expobar Office Barista Minore III

4.4) This site is a reliable source - in this article, they have a brief review of some home-sized machines and a comparison of price and value.

5) A good grinder is essential also, otherwise the extraction is less controllable. Fiorenzato F4 E nano is highly recommended. It is available from Coffex in Malaysia.

Another opinion (coffee journalist):

Nuovo Simonelli 'Oscar' espresso machine and Mazzer 'Mini' grinder might be a good entry point. Though he says you could go even lower and try an rm500 espresso machine if you have zero background in pulling shots.

He also recommended the Fiorenzato as above, and the Nuova Simonelli MCI Grinder for comparison.

Good Coffee, Bad Coffee

Good espresso: "I always get blueberry, sometimes less blueberry, and more chocolate - it's fun hunting for the taste of toast."

Mediocre espresso: "Where the fuck is the blue... oh... I think I got a bit of it..."

Bad espresso: "This tastes like cat piss."