Muninn
"Dick Laurent is dead."
Burnt out, over the hill autistic IT nerd and longtime SSC lurker
User ID: 3219
Muninn
"Dick Laurent is dead."
1d ago
Working Class (SC Marva Collins Book 2) by Nathan Lowell.
Muninn
"Dick Laurent is dead."
2d ago
I grew up in the Los Angeles area during the best time to grow up there (I might make a top level post about this some time) and it is essentially unrecognizable.
Please do, I would love to read that!
Muninn
"Dick Laurent is dead."
3d ago
So the book is Marine! The Life of Chesty Puller, but being a biography of Puller, there isn't anything else to explain Willoughby's motives at all. There might be more insight to be had from a good bio of MacArthur on that front.
Reminds me of a bit from back when I read a biography of Lewis "Chesty" Puller. General C.A. Willoughby, MacArthur's intelligence chief, had come to X Corps HQ in Wonsan from Tokyo, along with his staff. Evidently, when Willoughby asked General Almond how things were, Almond told him about the seventh division fighting the Chinese, and that both sides had taken casualties, to which Willoughby replied, "that's another goddamn Marine lie." Almond promptly led him out to the POW stockade and showed him around 80 Chinese POWs that the 7th had captured. Willoughby reportedly departed without saying another word and that evening, the situation map from Tokyo that showed detailed positions of the troops suddenly showed 500,000 Chinese troops scattered around the map. It was clear from Puller's point of view that the issue was political. Quoth Chesty:
Now that's the fastest damned troop movement in the history of the world, gentlemen. You'll never see another such. And don't forget this lesson: Tokyo wouldn't admit that we had Chinese fighting us even after the Eight Army was in flight, because some damned staff officers hundreds of miles away willed it to be so. You can't will anything in war.
Muninn
"Dick Laurent is dead."
8d ago
Book of the Dead 3: Masquerade by RinoZ. Pretty confident that #4 will be up next on my reading list.
Muninn
"Dick Laurent is dead."
13d ago
Sticking strictly to the antipsychotics, it's more that the meds help, but can only ease the symptoms and not actually rid most folks entirely of schizophrenia when they take them. If you've watched Reservation Dogs, the character of Maximus is a good example there. He knows he needs his medication when he's on it, and he tries to take it regularly, but he forgets sometimes and starts to spiral until his behavior catches up with him or he recognizes that he needs help. Either way, he gets treatment and can hold down his life again.
When it comes to not even believing that medication is needed, and with the caveat that I'm not a psychiatrist, etc. etc., my impression based on what I've seen is that for the most part is that there's a host of different justifications for that thinking, but the practicalities tend to boil down to a either a lack of insight or awareness that their behavior is even problematic in the first place, and/or an attachment to their particular flavor of schizophrenic ideation. On top of that, the side effects of antipsychotics tend to suck, too. More generally, kinda like how Hassan has the rigid belief that police officers want to have (homosexual) sex with him, in his world the police wanting to have sex with him is the problem, medication's got nothing to do with it! Or in my example above, of course the unaccompanied kids are in danger, there's no adult present to look after them! If the police were doing their jobs, they'd be either looking after the kids themselves, or going after the parents of the kids for not looking after their own!
Muninn
"Dick Laurent is dead."
13d ago
Although I'm IT, I happen to work in the mental health field, and we see a lot of Hassans on a semi-regular basis. I get the feeling that working with them would be extremely difficult, just because it'd be so fucking heartbreaking. I mean, I'd want to do everything I could for him, and I'd feel terrible that bare bones basics like medication management and linking him to help and encouraging him to use it would be the best that I could do for him, and that he probably wouldn't take advantage of any of the help because of the paranoia. It seems like bad choices all the way down when it comes to the question of when should these individuals lose their rights. I'm firmly on record as saying that the SC has erred on the side of turning the mental health problem into a law enforcement problem with the current doctrine of imminent danger of harm to self or others or chronic inability to care for self, but I also have no illusions that widespread institutionalization was worse. The reality of the law being a blunt instrument here really hits home with frequent flyer clients like the lady who is consistently hospitalized for abducting children off the streets which in her mind is for their own safety, treated with medication, then released, whereupon she promptly stops taking her meds, "because she doesn't need them," then goes back to her delusions and tries to protect another kid and starts the cycle all over again.
And the big kicker in all of this is that your example of Hassan is a great one in the sense that he seems to code to the classic, "would probably never even hurt a fly unless he is triggered in a highly specific fashion," sort of situation, which is, of course, the vast majority of schizophrenics. I know, I know, it's very trope-y to be busting out the, "less violent than normies," meme here but the other piece of this for me is that from what I've seen, the violent mentally ill throw many more red flags than just trying to protect themselves. Threats of violence and violent or even homicidal ideation are common and even then, the biggest single red flag is that they've been violent in the past, not that they threaten violence or fantasize about it. I'm sure this, in part, is why having a plan to harm someone or oneself is a prerequisite for involuntary commitment, lest we start locking folks up left and right for wanting to hurt or kill an antagonist or themselves.
Anyway, I really appreciate this post because it brings home the reality that absent a major breakthrough, schizophrenia in particular will remain a particularly poor fit for the lens of the culture wars. Even if we go with the metaphor of the spectrum for mental illness, there's a clear-cut difference between the Jared Loughners and the Lee Harvey Oswalds.
Muninn
"Dick Laurent is dead."
14d ago
This is true to an extent, but you've already got the vocabulary to get started. Basic things like sweet, sour, chocolate, fruity, spicy, nutty, earthy, and even smoky will probably be noticeable to you right away. As you get into the taste of your coffee, you'll notice more and more details, and be able to get more specific. Tart and sour resolves to something citrus-y. That nutty flavor tastes a little like pecan. That one sip reminds you of a nibble of really dark chocolate as the bitterness fades and the chocolate really opens up in your palate. And doggone if that one doesn't taste like black tea or green tea here and there. I've uploaded a coffee wheel image for your reference.
More than the caffeine, this is the hook that coffee set for me. I don't always get every flavor advertised in the particular bean but it's there so consistently that I'm confident that the flavor is there as long as I roast it right, which of course is half the fun, except when I'm consistently getting savory out of my beans. That means that it's time for me to clean my roaster!
Muninn
"Dick Laurent is dead."
14d ago
I saw it and liked it, though I felt that the overall narrative of the movie lacked coherency. Then I found out that in large part, the movie is an adaptation of Thomas Pynchon's Vineland and now I'm impressed that PTA was able to take something from Pynchon (I've never read Vineland, though now I want to) and make it that accessible on the big screen. I can definitely see why it could be seen as resistance bait, though, and I'm sure for some folks the CW angle could be enough to sour them on the movie.
Book of the Dead I: Awakening by Rinoz. I was a little leery of the story at the start but it's been handled well enough to grow on me, and now I'm hooked.
Muninn
"Dick Laurent is dead."
15d ago
I'm going to see if it's possible to train my nose to become more sensitive and receptive again. Sort of like how exercising the body influences the brain etc. If I demand more performance from my palate, maybe something will respond. I'm something of a food/drink enjoyer, it's one of my joys in life, so having a weak receptivity won't do.
I'm not surprised that you enjoy food and drink and I strongly believe that it's possible to gain or regain sensitivity to taste and smell. Simply paying attention to the sensory inputs while imbibing is, IMO, a large part of the battle. Not-so-coincidentally, I also believe that this is why explicit tastings are a Thing; for me, it's far easier to pay attention to the sensory input when that's the explicit point of the exercise. Anyway, sounds like you've got your eye on some nice new beans to try. Indonesian coffee in particular will likely give you a good idea of how different coffee can taste by region, assuming the roast isn't too dark.
My dude, I appreciate the report! I'll just comment on a few things here:
I enjoyed a pleasant buzz from the caffeine in the first few days - a better buzz than ever before in my life from coffee, it seemed.
I also feel perkier when I'm drinking pour-over coffee when compared to a cup from a Keurig or an automatic drip coffeemaker.
The grinder (Krups Silent Vortex; blades) is not that great. It does its job, but the coffee ends up ground to different sized bits. There's some light brown bits that are clearly much bigger and are thus perhaps not infused to the same degree into the liquid, compared to the tinier bits...?
This is exactly why the grinder is the second most important component. Equal grind size equals equal infusion, which yields a more consistent flavor from the beans.
The taste was not all that special. I was whelmed. The Yirgacheffe clearly tastes better than pre-ground Arabica, but not that much different. There's a few subtle notes of perhaps fruit or a spicy flower or something, but it's all a bit too subtle for my untrained, somewhat aged palate. Pleasant to drink though. I don't need cream or sugar when brewing this one.
This tells me that you've got enough of a sense of taste and smell that you'd probably get to the point where you could get definite flavors from your brew if you decide to keep going down this path, especially when combined with your sharp observation that different sized grounds will yield uneven results in the taste department. When I first started down the road of fresh roasted coffee it seemed like drinking tea to me, which is to say that I definitely noticed differences with different varieties of black tea and so did freshly roasted beans seem to have some distinct flavor to them. I still don't know that I'd be good enough to actually go cup individual coffees and buy for a specialty house or operation but I'm definitely in wine snob territory when it comes to getting a lot of flavor notes out of a good fresh roasted pour over. I suspect that there's similar potential for you there if you choose to pursue it.
The Rugori was even less impressive though. It was far too close to a totally average cup of coffee.
Sorry to hear that one wasn't so special for you, though it's entirely possible that it might come into its own if you keep trying it over the next several days.
Regardless, I'm glad you shared your experience and it sure sounds to me like you've started your journey. If you decide to continue trying fresh coffee, please continue to write more here and feel free to continue asking questions, I'd appreciate it and from your last I know we have a few other coffee buffs around here that might chime in as well. Enjoy!
Muninn
"Dick Laurent is dead."
21d ago
I’ve been reading Ars Technica for years — I loved John Siracusa’s old macOS deep dives — but the tone of their reporting has shifted. A lot of it feels like “heckin science!” coverage
(snip)
Funny, it seems like a decade ago that I myself was Noticing that Ars was following the path of Slashdot and no longer worth a read. Shame, too, they were one of the good ones BITD; I learned a lot from Jon Stokes' articles there.
Muninn
"Dick Laurent is dead."
22d ago
Yes, essentially. I'll have to check out more of his work and I've been impressed with the translation, too. I've particularly noticed the abbreviated speech of some of the characters and I can't help but think that the translator is mimicking the Japanese tendency towards the same in their speech.
Muninn
"Dick Laurent is dead."
22d ago
Cool, look forward to hearing your thoughts on it once you've finished, if you're so inclined. I read it once earlier back around the time it came out, and I remember it vaguely but I think I'm definitely enjoying it more the second time around.
Muninn
"Dick Laurent is dead."
22d ago
Up next is C J Cherryh’s Merchanter’s Luck for a change of pace. This feels incredibly “genre” in a good way. Pretty impressed with the economy of prose so far, too. Looking forward to it.
I'd be interested to hear how you liked that, I've got Downbelow Station somewhere in my, "one of these days," stack of books to read.
Muninn
"Dick Laurent is dead."
22d ago
Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World by Haruki Murakami. It's the kind of book that makes me wish I was fluent in Japanese so that I could read it in its original form.
Muninn
"Dick Laurent is dead."
25d ago
Sounds exhausting, but considering the amount of polarisation in Western political discourse, its not that surprising.
It is, and it's not. My wife regularly tries to initiate struggle sessions with me because I took the black pill over a decade ago and started pointing and laughing at politics instead of taking it seriously. "I know you're a good raven, Muninn and I'm trying to understand how a good corvid like you wouldn't be alarmed at $Latest_Thing," is typically how these things go, and I just feed her the, "render unto Caesar that which is Caesar's," line that I feed just about everybody these days because a single specimen of bacteria residing on the flesh of a random state legislator has more influence over national politics than I do and long experience has taught me that if I actually engage and start talking about the landmarks that the US passed on the way to arriving at $Latest_Thing, I'm likely to be seen, at best, as an argumentative and pedantic asshole, and at worst as a misguided rube with inordinate sympathy for the obvious Fascists. Sticking to my guns will eventually lead to grudging acknowledgment that paying so much attention to that shit is making her miserable too, and for bonus points maybe we can even have a productive conversation about some of her more heretical thoughts.
Muninn
"Dick Laurent is dead."
28d ago
Out of all of those, I'm only familiar with the Kenyan. I'm pretty sure that I've had coffee from Kirinyaga and Kiangoi is a good farm, so that one should be exemplary Kenyan coffee. More generally, if you're going with some Yirgacheffe, I'd steer you away from the Magarissa Sede just because you're already looking at an Ethiopian, and maybe even tell you to pick up the Indonesian if you're looking to try a second set of beans that will provide a nice contrast taste-wise to the general similarities that many African coffees share. If not, I'll just add that my understanding of Rwandan coffee is that it used to be pretty hit or miss, but the Rwandan coffee industry has been hard at work for a long time now and I've always liked what I've picked up from there whenever it's been offered for I think at least a decade now so like Kenyan coffee, I'd expect that you'd get a good batch of beans there.
Regardless of what you choose, I hope you enjoy it and come back here to post the results of your experiments!
Muninn
"Dick Laurent is dead."
29d ago
Dinner At Deviant's Palace, by Tim Powers. Haven't read this one since I was a kid, and it's interesting to revisit it with adult eyes and understanding.
Muninn
"Dick Laurent is dead."
30d ago
Funny, of the three that you've listed I've only ever tasted Kona, though I have a Colombian Gesha and another one that I don't remember off the top of my head (don't think it was Panamanian), both waiting for me to clean my roaster and run a couple more batches through it so that I'm sure that my beans are tasting right again. Anyway, I generally steer folks away from the more expensive and rare pedigree coffees and usually recommend starting with trying some Central and South American coffees and some African coffees, but Kona and Gesha are both pedigree coffees for a reason, so if you want to start with one of those, go nuts. A good Nariño should give you an idea of what Colombian coffees can bring to the table: a nice silky body, a complex taste with hints of raw sugar sweetness. See, this is the wine talk stuff here, but I don't think you'll go wrong if you find some that's freshly roasted.
But yeah, if I'm going to name other regional coffees to try, Ethiopian is always high on my list, so if you see an Ethiopian Yirgacheffe, Sidama, or Guji for sale, they'd be good coffees to try. Sadly, I can't put Harar coffee on that list anymore but it's an old favorite of mine and my first, "yeah, this fresh roasted coffee thing is legit," coffee and was/is infamous for its tangible blueberry note. I've had lots of good Burundi coffees in the last several years, and have liked the coffees that I've gotten from Kenya and Tanzania as well.
Moving to Central/South America, Colombian is nice stuff as I said above, and Guatemalan coffee is another favorite of mine, Huehuetenango in particular has been a coffee region that I keep coming back to, and Antigua has been growing good coffee for hundreds of years. I could go on forever, but will say that more generally, as long as the beans and the roast are good, you're going to get a good coffee. I've also had tasty Costa Rican and Nicaraguan coffees that have worked for me, and I've had a couple of interesting Brazilian coffees as well. I think the only reason I haven't tried more Brazilian coffee is that there just haven't been many Brazilian coffees for sale when I'm buying, which is probably a me thing as much as anything else--there's a particular Christmas espresso blend that I absolutely adore and I invariably buy way too many other coffees to try when buying it so I don't tend to do any buying in the early parts of the year.
Okay, I've already geeked out for way too long on coffee. My suspicion is that you're going to find that there's something to this craft/specialty coffee business and that if you decide to keep at it you'll find plenty of different coffees that you like in your own right. Subjectivity aside, there's a definite superiority to this side of coffee that may well keep you coming back.
Muninn
"Dick Laurent is dead."
1mo ago
Then you're on your way! I do want to say that I totally understand and respect your skepticism WRT coffee tasting, but I strongly suspect that even with a mediocre palate, if you get into it in any depth you're going to find that there's enough flavor there to draw you in more deeply. The growing caffeine addiction is just bonus points! More seriously, though, regional coffee characteristics are often pretty distinct at the lower levels of roasts and are the gateway for lots of us that have taken the plunge. You'll notice the brightness of African coffees and the earthiness of Southeast Asian coffees, for example, even if you don't get every hint of lemongrass or honeyed almonds promised by a particular bean.
The other thing that I came back to say was that I'd strongly recommend that you stick with buying whole beans and let your Krups grinder do the work. As @srf0638 has said above, the Krups will be fine for pour-overs (and +1,000 for Sweet Maria's, yay!), and getting your beans pre-ground will effectively kill the advantage that you'll get from using fresh beans to begin with. Ideally, you want to grind your beans right before you begin your pour-over.
True! I thought that I was pretty explicit about the money part, especially with the upfront stereo equipment reference, but I had to think about your comment for a minute before I really unpacked the time part, mostly because my brain was stuck in the past and thinking about how unreliable specialty roasters could be and how a good one is worth their weight in gold when these days, any decent-sized town will probably have a coffee shop or two that sells good fresh roasted beans. Hell, I've bought them myself more than a few times to try and calibrate my own equipment against a fresh shot from the shop's machine, definitely good practice.
ETA: Not surprised to see that you're also referencing Sweet Maria's! They've taught me most of what I know about coffee and I've been buying my beans from them for decades.
Muninn
"Dick Laurent is dead."
1mo ago
Okay, I'm late to the party, so I'm going to jump in here with my reply instead of the top.
Getting into craft coffee is like getting into high end stereo equipment. Nothing is going to be optimal, but the higher-priced tiers of equipment will get you closer to your goal. Likewise, there's a wide variety in taste with various regions and beans for you to experience, especially at the lighter roasts where the individual flavor of the bean can shine. Practically speaking, unless you become a taster yourself you'll never run out of variety to try between the origin of the coffee, the process used to separate the bean from the fruit, the degree of roast in the coffee itself, etc. I tend to roast mostly African coffees and Central American coffees, but every region that can grow coffee has good things about it and good farms that produce coffee worth its premium price. Unless the roaster is an artiste, the flavors that the bean is supposed to evoke will be probably present more as suggestions than solid tastes at first, though the good ones are so damn good that you'll wonder if they added flavoring to the coffee. Regardless, the more you drink your craft coffee black, the more your palate will develop, and when you find yourself unironically talking about things like notes of stone fruit and hints of this or that spice or the type of citrus that the coffee evokes for you, you'll find that you've become a coffee connoisseur in your own right.
A Chemex is, by all accounts, a good pour-over, and your electric kettle, while not ideal, should be good enough to get you started.
However.
The freshness of the beans themselves is the most critical part of your craft coffee journey, ideally roasted within the last several days levels of fresh. I'm assuming you've already got a local craft coffee place that sells the beans that it roasts and this won't be an issue for you, but they're an absolute must if you want to travel this path. Given the assumption, you've got some good recommendations for burr grinders here already and they're the next most important piece of your potential coffee journey. With price being an issue, the good manual grinder might be the way to go for now but if you think you're going to seriously be into craft coffee, it might be a good idea to save up for a good grinder. FWIW. I've always liked Baratza grinders, and I personally use a Baratza Sette 270. That seems to be a bit of overkill to me for someone who just wants to be able to have a nice pour-over, but regardless you might be able to find refurbs on their website for cheaper. I did when I bought mine. Also, you'll want something with a one-way valve to store your fresh coffee in so that it can outgas while keeping outside air outside. A good canister or container shouldn't be too much money and will be worth the purchase.
One more thing to talk about. Inevitably, this rabbit hole includes taking the plunge and roasting green coffee beans for your own consumption. I've seen folks that have spent thousands on their roasters and espresso makers while other folks have gone with old-school methods like a popcorn popper or even just baking sheets in the oven. I started with a Fresh Roast two decades ago and have spent way too much money on better and better equipment as my earning power increased. Just something to keep in mind when planning for your next glorious level of stereo coffee equipment. Enjoy!
Interesting. After discovering that One Battle After Another was based on Vineland, I've wanted to read it to get a feel for the source material, all the more so since I made my way through Gravity's Rainbow and well remember the sense of
,"what in the actual fuck did I just read,"stupefied awe that I felt afterwards. I kinda want to read it both less and more at the same time after that description!More options
Context Copy link