Versus the Traffic Jam

Catching up on sleep - surrounded by talking people - because I don't really have time to listen when I'm fully awake :P

The most interesting article today, because it was basically look-up table of short definitions for terms in abstract algebra:

Co-finality. That is all. Retiring from FB for the day. Need to get ass into bed, then up for the working weekend... whee... :)

Building A Customised Reading List on the "Internet"

Time to get webby!

1) Most blogging platforms will let you subscribe to an RSS feed, and if there aren't specific RSS feeds for specific tags, you can probably get an RSS client that will do the filtering for you.

2) Search "consolidate rss feeds" and you'll find a bunch of ways to pipe a whole bunch of other feeds into a single feed - kinda like how Twitter lets you make a List of people so that viewing the List shows you all the tweets of the people in the list.

3) (Webzines are) a GREAT place to start crawling for links to good coffee content. (Some webzines leave their entire archive crawlable).

4) "(name of thing or subject that you're interested in) blog" is a good search term.

Happy webbing...

Rao's Book's Model vs. Ristrettos

After a lot of testing, and a lot of bad shots, I have figured out roughly why/how a direct application of the espresso brewing model in Scott Rao's book doesn't work (for me at work).

Rao follows a close-to-current-SCAA definition of espresso: the extraction mass is targeted at 1.5x-2.0x the dry-dose mass. Whereas, at work, we mostly pull ristrettos with an extraction mass within the range of 0.5x-1.5x the dry-dose mass.

Drinking fruit juice concentrate, Pei Pa Koa - 念慈菴, soy sauce, etc. straight-up can be pretty disgusting, whereas many such solutions yield beautiful profiles simply via dilution. A lot of stuff is simply more balanced with added water.

Or you could just extract a less complex solution into what little water you have. Most (not all) of my recent tests (which are rather subjective) have resulted in rather pleasant flavour profiles in shots that fall *short* of the 25-40 second range in Rao's book's model.

Furthermore, a number of roasters we are working with appear to target roast profiles that taste better at low extraction yields - my suspicion is that it's because they too are calibrating their roasts for ristrettos.

All this appears to result in a waste of coffee, but it still tastes nice if you get it right.

:)

Etc.

Off-day! Back at the cafe filling out web forms and hopefully... time providing... studying math.

10.5 hours till first alarm. Getting off Wikipedia, and reminding myself to read every syllable of strange texts at least 3 times in a row, then rest, then 2 more times later.

It's the easiest thing in the world to avoid inadequacy. But if you do completely, you cannot cognise its opportunity costs. Therefore, it is healthy to seek greater awkwardness... and that mandate is what keeps me insane. Mutate and try again.

Jan-23: 75 minutes to the office. Breakfast. No time for school. Will worry about that after hours. Plus, fixing the odometer.

Chores

End of a long weekend. Car electricals failed. I suspect a faulty alternator cable... but who knows. Managed to park at a workshop, returned to office to sleep, and will find out how much I get ripped for in the morning. :P Meanwhile, hitting JobStreet before bed.

Well, it turns out that JobStreet geniuses have worked with every client employer to create microsites that essentially require redundant manual entry of personal data for every single employer. LOL. I give up. That didn't take too long.

(Well not really giving up - given that there are some 374 jobs listed there that provide sufficiently interesting numbers, I guess I'll just plough through them slowly whenever I am bored in the months and years to come.)

Up late, in the dead of the night, in a quaint little city. The city I was born, and grew up in, which for the last eight years has been my home. I wonder if my boredom will confine me here.

If you read books like people, and people like books, and don't really assume huge differences between one information system and another, then you tend to believe that few people also share your point of view. But you have to get along with them anyhow, that is commerce. The alternatives, uncivil force, abject asceticism, or mere death, seem relatively uninformative.

Update: alternator replaced. Reading up on engine oil. A number of forums recommend 10W30 grade oil for the Kancil 660cc, 1996.

Priorities. Enjoy the peace and quiet while it lasts.

Grease

Woke up thinking that I haven't gotten a lot done recently, but probably, I'm just too tired to remember. Now that I think about it, the schedule of the past two days seems rather balanced, even if headway in studies is slow. Like a salad with no grease. Hmm.

A later conversation:

Me: Sour faces? All I feel is pity... if the lack of cake bothers you, you must surely require a greater sense of priority.

C: On a lighter note, how long has that person been putting up with you? Surely is not about the cake, but the understanding

Me: Referring to a colleague's comment on cakeless customers... I'd guestimate the mean time to be 35 seconds between walking into the building, and realising that the item which they are requesting for... is out of stock.

C: Work-related indeed, workaholic nonetheless. Don't let it seep into personal relationship

Me: All my relationships are usually work related. Then there are the lovers. And then near the bottom of all priorities are so-called friends and so-called family. haha.

C: I would say your real lover and priority are math/thinking hard. Struggling hard on work is to make sure it tallies with the mental plans you have. Just remember sleep for 10 hours for at least once a week ^^

Me: Well unless I was delusional, math wouldn't provide a warm body to hug to sleep. Of course, having company in bed is of a distinctly lower priority than working on conceptually hard problems.

... Sleep: prefer to average 10 hours a day makes a HUGE difference on memory behaviour ... including the short-term memory processes involved in what folks call "creativity".

Success warrants a tap on the shoulder, compliments and well congratulatory intimacy, well for most introvert hehe

Me: LOL. I like bodies too. But bodies are easy to obtain. Knowledge is not.

C: 'Closure', I mean literally hehe. Well can't agree more, I like em to especially how close you can get them bodies near your heart
about a minute ago · Like

Me: Heart is not an important concept in my ontology. LOL. Which helps to explain a lot, I suppose.

C: There's at least gotta be some human-like traits in you LOL. Okie obsession beyond intuition XD
a few seconds ago · Like

Me: Unquantified emotion is a common, but unnecessary element of humanity. Quantified emotion is just thought. As they say, "big whoop".