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
Ha! As much as some folks in /r/sysadmin would love for IT work to be unionized, that's not happening in my corner of the Earth anytime soon!
Muninn
"Dick Laurent is dead."
2d ago
Right?! I was ready to pay up to $2k for personal service but 5 seems nutty to me.
Muninn
"Dick Laurent is dead."
2d ago
Alas, we really need to set up a trust as well as a will, though this would be a decent stopgap for sure!
Muninn
"Dick Laurent is dead."
2d ago
They definitely live up (and down) to their reputation, I'll say that. The Europiccola is well night unusable IME, it barely had time to pull a shot before its thermal fuse kicked out. The Professional, OTOH, has been a dream in terms of maintaining steam/pressure, but finding the sweet spot in terms of tamp has always been tricksy for me in the sense that there's little wiggle room between a nice shot that requires some, but not too much, force to pull, and a shot that's a little too tightly packed and can't really be pulled at all! As you can imagine, that kind of workout hasn't been kind to the grouphead gaskets...
I can do TIA 586B in my sleep (orange-white orange, green-white blue, blue-white green, brown-white brown), and only get TIA 586A right without looking it up 50% of the time. That's not a good combination.
Okay, funnily enough, while I do have both schemes straight in my head (we had one building that for whatever reason seemed to have constant network issues that we largely solved by going from 586B to 586A, so I got used to the difference pretty quickly as we reworked the wiring) I swear I had 586B as 586A in my head and vice versa until seeing this post and reminding myself that no, we were using A in that clinic and not B. Doh! facepalm
Muninn
"Dick Laurent is dead."
2d ago
So, anyone here have any experience with either using an online service like Legal Zoom or Trust and Will the like to create a trust, will, medical directives/POA, etc, or alternately going it alone with DIY? We had an unexpected death in our family several months ago, and as a result it's kinda lit a fire under my ass to actually get something on the books instead of just a vague, soon-ish thought in my head. I decided to check with a local legal group that specializes in this, but their price tag is >$5k, when the online guys are <20% of that. I know most of what goes into these things is boilerplate, but I also know that it's not unheard of for there to be additional trouble with online shops and DIY kits, too, so I'd be interested to hear others' experience with things like this.
Muninn
"Dick Laurent is dead."
2d ago
Yeah, that analogy checks out. IMAO what they are more than anything is convenient, but said convenience definitely comes with a price tag attached. I think these days that K-cups are over a dollar a pop when coming from a local grocery store, though the warehouse places like Costco, Sam's, BJ's, etc. will get you closer to .50 to .75 per cup, depending on brand, and below that for the house brands. So while the coffee might not be so fresh on the fourth or fifth cup from the good old automatic drip coffee maker, it'll be significantly less expensive.
Muninn
"Dick Laurent is dead."
2d ago
I've been using a La Pavoni Professional for the last several years, it's not terrible to take apart but I might be a little excessively concerned that I'm going to mess it up trying to pry the gaskets out of the grouphead, even though my rational brain knows it'll be fine. Never tried the Breville but I've heard really good things about them, and especially that dual boiler system.
I don't know a damn thing about hacking a Breville, but I'm curious as to what you'd hack on one. PID would be the obvious first stop, but doesn't the dual boiler have one in both the broiler and the grouphead?
Muninn
"Dick Laurent is dead."
2d ago
You're absolutely right, of course, my choices have been inexcusable. I denounce myself!
Muninn
"Dick Laurent is dead."
2d ago
Cool, the Flair Go is a fascinating little machine, part of me wants to buy one for portable espresso but the other part of me is reminding me that the decision to just go with the flow and take the opportunity to check out the local scene was already made. Thing about an espresso machine in particular is that the pressure required for espresso is going to blow out the gaskets sooner or later, and next thing you know, your espresso is coming out the sides of the portafilter as well as from the portafilter and, well, you're ready to replace the gasket!
Muninn
"Dick Laurent is dead."
3d ago
I am in awe of your coffee game, fellow Mottizen. I can practically taste the bitter mochaltine flavor from here!
Muninn
"Dick Laurent is dead."
3d ago
You're not wrong, Walter, but I'm doing a bit here, work with me!
You say that, and I hear you, but believe it or not Starbucks is a significant gateway drug when it comes to the wider realm of craft coffee. And when I'm travelling and there's no good-looking craft coffee in the vicinity of my stay, it's nice when there's a nearby Starbucks and I can get a shot or four of their blonde espresso roast.
Muninn
"Dick Laurent is dead."
3d ago
I've been drinking too much coffee lately - turning it into some sort of crutch during the day, relying on it to boost my energy after working hard. Three strong cups a day is too much and my sleep has suffered as a result. I also haven't been able to pick out many subtle notes - and on that note!, I've wondered why the ground beans always smell much more intensely and complex right after grinding, compared to the finished liquid in the cup, which is much more muted and simple. Because of this I've included a stirring pin in my latest order. I will try to arrange the grounds properly before pouring, and then stirring while it infuses.
Yeah, that can definitely do it. At my own personal height of madness, I would have a shot of espresso in the morning, then head down to my local craft coffee shop to talk coffee and grab something from them, which could be a nitro cold brew, a pour-over, a "dialed in" (y'know, that fancypants mixture of steamed cold brew, coconut oil, and grass-fed butter), or even just another shot of espresso from them. This actually improved my palate overall, but it could give me sleep issues as well, which isn't saying much these days but still. COVID plus inflation killed them, alas, but I'm better off without all of that extra caffeine, even though I miss nerding out on coffee with the staff there.
On the ground beans part, brewing just doesn't extract all of that wonderful flavor and aroma that the act of grinding has just released from the bean. The idea behind espresso is actually to extract the maximum flavor from the bean while leaving the bitterness behind in the puck, and while it definitely produces the most intensely flavorful brew of all methods of making coffee, it can definitely blunt the more refined and delicate notes of a particular coffee, which is where pour-overs come in. Just about all of us who get way too into coffee end up preferring either espresso for flavor or pour-overs for the subtlety.
When the order arrives I'll be trying out what will be, by far, the most expensive home made coffee I've ever tried: Honduras Geisha. At almost 4.50 USD (eqv.) per 16g cup! In the meantime I'll try to reduce my tolerance a bit and improve my sleep by drinking a minimal amount of coffee.
Ooh, please share your experience with that once you've tried it a couple of times! I actually have three pounds of Guatemalan Gesha that I'll roast as soon as I'm confident in my roasting again, which will probably be a few weeks from now, but in the meantime I'd love to hear your opinion on it. Speaking of which, I'd be interested in hearing about whether or not the stirring pin makes a difference for you, if you wouldn't mind. Cheers!
Muninn
"Dick Laurent is dead."
3d ago
Thanks for the kind words and for sharing your experience, pour-overs with fresh coffee are on a whole different level than regular automatic drip coffee! May I ask what kind of lever machine you're using? Espresso is actually my favorite way to enjoy coffee but my machine is ready for a full tear-down and a fresh set of gaskets, so I need to get going on that project now that I've done the deep cleaning on my roaster.
Growing one's own coffee would be amazing, though probably work intensive to get good coffee out of it. If you ever do so, please post about it here!
Muninn
"Dick Laurent is dead."
3d ago
Oh, you're just getting started on the fun, sonny. You've got so much to look forward to! Before you know it, your nose will run for no reason when you're eating, your grip will fail you every once in a while, you'll get sore so much more quickly when exerting yourself physically, your muscles and bones will creak and pop in new and freaky ways... it just keeps getting more interesting! Yes, you'll keep mixing things up, probably ever-more frequently, but it's when you stop noticing the mix-up that shit's getting real...
Muninn
"Dick Laurent is dead."
3d ago
I thought the coffee haters would be for people that actually hate coffee, not people that like coffee enough to be picky about it.
Me too, but what do I know? I'm not a fan of the bitterness either, which is why, when left to my own devices, I prefer espresso and pour-overs.
Fellow Mottizens, I have a most shameful confession to make. Despite being a card-carrying member of the notorious player coffee haters, I have been living a lie.
I have been settling for coffee straight from a Keurig.
I hear your gasps and mutterings! I know! There's no excusing my behavior! For the sake of explanation, however, I will simply state that my coffee roaster was in desperate need of cleaning, which between my limited bandwidth and the tremendous amount of buildup in the roaster, became a fucking project.
That project has been completed, and I am happy to report that after two roasts, I can now confidently say we are back, baby! You see, the first roast, while good, was just muddled enough that I had some doubts. I could say for sure that the annoying meat-like savory note that cropped up was gone, as was the slight but persistent rancid flavor that often accompanied it, so it sure seemed like the cleaning had been effective. However, my coffee, a fine Ethiopian Dry Process from Hambela, while quite tasty and definitely a significant step up flavor-wise, failed to overwhelm me with its magnificence! What had happened, I asked myself. I knew that the roast had taken several minutes longer than usual, a definite potential issue, especially since hotter, faster roasts with my roaster tend to produce better coffee IME. Damn that cold snap! Or perhaps the beans were showing their age and indeed, they were no longer fresh from the vendor and quite possibly past their prime. Or, worse still, had my palate atrophied in the intervening time? Was I no longer able to enjoy the subtle depths of a premium cuppa? True, I could definitely taste fruity sweetness in many sips, as well as a chocolate note, yes, likely baker's chocolate, but outside of the traditional, relatively refined delicacy of a nice pour-over, I didn't get anything definite from the roast, despite enjoying it for over a week. The tasting notes indicated that there should be blueberry preserves, peach and dark plum notes in there, along with sorghum syrup (whatever that's supposed to taste like), and dried dates. I feared the worst.
The next roast, I brought out the big guns. You see, I still had a wee bit of another Ethiopian Dry Process from Guji, the infamous Gerbicho Rogicha. Hands down the best coffee to ever come out of my bullet, the Guji was even older than the Hambela before it, but I had nothing better in my inventory with which to test my skills and my palate. I roasted it on Sunday, another cold day, but managed to get it roasted three minutes faster than my previous batch, and happily locked it away waiting for it to out-gas and mature while I finished the Hambela. Today was my first cup of Guji, and I boy did it ever deliver the goods. The big notes that I remembered from the coffee were still there, slightly muted from their heights of peak freshness as they were. Still, it was deliciously reassuring to taste its bounty of flavors, from the pervasive limeade citrus note to the delicate floral sips as the cup cooled down, and an occasional-but-delicious strawberry fruitiness in-between. It was Good, and now I intend to roast down my burgeoning stores of green coffee and enjoy them while I still can. I even have two separate bags of Gesha to try out, which I look forward to roasting, and will do so as soon as I regain my roasting footage with a couple more batches. Stay thirsty and caffeinated, my friends!
Muninn
"Dick Laurent is dead."
4d ago
I can sympathize. I was actually going to wish you well myself! It took me several years plus some good fortune before I really became comfortable with a decent amount of risk, and I know well that it could have been quite different if things had gone poorly for me overall. Here's the story in case you're interested.
Once upon a time, several years distant, I embarked upon a similar path, setting aside a nice chunk of seed money and telling myself that I was going to treat it all as a loss and invest it. It's been one heckuva learning experience, and the first lesson was that I learned is that when I told myself I was going to treat it all as a loss, my emotional self didn't get the memo. This should have been obvious when I just let that account sit for a couple of years, never quite being brave enough to pull the trigger investing the time and effort to make some serious picks. Then a certain US manufacturer landed in hot water and I decided to roll the dice and bought in. Said manufacturer's stock continued to merrily dip and I watched on in anxious fear for around a week or so as ten percent of my investment potentially evaporated, reinforcing my first lesson. It turned out that I still cared very much about the money that I was allegedly treating as lost from square one! When it thankfully rebounded several days later, I sold with a tidy 6% gain and learned lesson number two, which was that I was gambling and not investing. Said stock continued chugging right back along at 150% of the price that I paid for it, teaching me what paper hands were, because I had them. I've since learned that my best actual investing is in the index funds that I plow my retirement money into every month, and that the little chunk of change that I set aside as an investment account can be much more exciting and emotionally rewarding (and occasionally nerve-wracking as well) for me personally as a vehicle for speculation and swing trading. It can be tons of fun, but for me it was most so when my then-boss and I would talk shop about hot and volatile stocks and what moves we were making. That in and of itself was as much as, if not more gratifying than the sweet picks and the nice trades. The hardest part for me has been managing my own emotions as I try to grow and manage that account, but the payoff has been in finding something that I just know is undervalued, investing in it, and watching it grow like gangbusters. The old cliche really is true: you miss 100% of the plays you never make in the first place!
Muninn
"Dick Laurent is dead."
6d ago
Understandable. I know counselors that can empathize with you are out there, both male and female, and I hope your new counselor is one of said females. Best of luck!
Muninn
"Dick Laurent is dead."
7d ago
Do you know what cops do when they assess that someone is out of their minds (either psychologically, or due to drugs)? They drop them off at the nearest ER, shrug, and say 'your problem now.' The worst types of criminals and mentally ill aren't dealt with by cops, but the healthcare system. The medical staff are meant to treat someone in a psychotic aggressive state without harming them or allowing themselves to come to harm.
All too true. Alas, this is pretty much SOP since a landmark Supreme Court ruling in 1975 set that specific standard. The system, such as it is, is working as intended. I work with folks that are responsible for doing the psychiatric screening end of this that get dispatched to the hospitals to determine whether or not these sorts of individuals are in such imminent danger to themselves or others or alternately cannot care for themselves that they need to be temporarily detained against their own will. It pretty much sucks for all liable parties, which is to say the hospitals, LEOs, and the screeners. The LEOs must regularly attend training on how to assess potential mental health issues with these sorts of folks and they could conceivably be put under the microscope for the decisions they make in these sorts of cases, so they're going to err on the side of taking folks to the hospital, where high-priced medical staff often need to basically wait for a drunk/drugged up patient to sober up, deal with the frequent fliers that are off their meds or worse still, decompensating but have to stay there until a bed opens up in a longer term care unit, or convince the depressed individual to just commit to a fucking safety plan already and Get Out of Dodge while they still can because they really don't want to have all of their things away and have to live in a padded room for a few days until they're judged safe from harming themselves, now do they? If a patient makes it to one of our people then we have to go through reams of paperwork to document the encounter with the client as well as the entire timeline from when the client hits to the hospital to when we leave, including when we first get the call, when we arrive at the hospital, what the disposition of the case was, whether or not the client was temporarily detained and if so, where were they sent, when was the ruling made, who ended up transporting the client, when did they arrive to collect the client, other various and sundry questions all revolving how long things took because detainment orders expire, and so if things go awry the bureaucracy can cover its ass and point the finger at the right party, which starts with our folks if they don't document everything to a T to begin with.
Somewhere, Moloch is smiling.
Muninn
"Dick Laurent is dead."
7d ago
Challenge accepted, I'll update when I've finished the book. Glad to hear that you liked it!
Yeah, that makes sense, Breville just wasn't a Thing back when I was chugging along with a Rancilio Silvia and daydreaming about the one-armed bandit. NGL, said one-armed bandit was hands down one of the best scores that I ever made on an Amazon Warehouse deal back when they were actually deals and it was more common to get stuff that was better than advertised, if not NIB, instead of worse. That said, I did find the imperfection they had talked about by accident one day when I was cleaning it. Still, I regret nothing on that particular purchase!
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