My Last Class is Coming

Tomorrow is the last day of classes for my degree! Wow.

I think because I've seen exams as 'the end', I've kinda let tomorrow sneak up on me unawares. But in many ways all the things that I associate most with college come to an end tomorrow, not in three weeks time with exams. Sitting in class with friends, the broader networks of relationships, learning from lecturers, the lunch time routines, the little eccentricities and college traditions, ping pong, prayer group, and my beloved study group: 'The Brains Trust'.

The daily grind, which has been such a joy, has but one last wind of the crank left in it. This place has shaped me in all sorts of ways: my thinking, my personality, my view of the broader world and Christian history, my love for Tassie and Sydney, the way I work. Praise God for it. I've more to be thankful for than I can possibly list, and more than I'm even able to articulate.

One last day.

Gomez @ The Metro

Pete and I were in the front row. So, so good. Really tight. Fun. So varied.


They played lots of oldies... more than we expected for a new album tour.

Home Espresso Tips: #5

Last one.

Chances are your espresso machine came with a tamper. Plastic, flimsy, not actually flat.


Recently I bought a $30 tamper. The big gain has been consistency. It fits (almost) right, I can get good, even pressure on it. The shots are just more consistent.

My closing thought: Laugh-off the bad times. Striving to get better coffee is pretentious and the pursuit of a perfectionist, which should probably render it impossible to enjoy. Take joy in the good times; be humble enough to ask advice and learn; realise you will never attain perfection in a coffee cup in this life. Drink coffee with friends.

Preach it like Steve

I want someone else to read this book and tell me if there's anything worth gleaning from it for preaching:

The Presentation Secrets of Steve Jobs

But I don't want anyone to know that I asked.

(Thanks TUAW)

Home Espresso Tips: #4

A quick one this time. Milk.

Happily, cheap domestic espresso machines can usually turn out pretty good milk (so long as they're well cleaned). My advice is basically practice, practice, practice spinning milk. Watch the videos. Read the tutorials. Ask your favourite barista.

You can't nail latte art unless you nail good milk. And, I reckon, milk textured just right feels and tastes better in the mouth.

Milk.

Home Espresso Tips: #3

So I've got my shots ready. The milk's in the jug. I flick on the steam wand, and... feeble, poor, lame. A mere sigh of hot air. The worst part is I've only got myself to blame.


Cleaning. Yep. Not glam in the least. But my goal is to be familiar enough with cleaning my machine that it's just no big deal - I can do it without thinking.

As for flushing your machine, there's an on-the-cheap method here: http://www.coffeeco.com.au/articles/august2002.html

But when it comes to the steam wand. Hmm. Well, of course you've gotta thoroughly wipe it after every single use. But if yours is like mine, you also need to clear it with a pin nearly as often. If you can figure out how it comes apart, even better (the nozzle unscrews on mine).

So, clean. The fewer things you can blame your machine for, the better :)

Home Espresso Tips: #2

Use a grinder. That's my tip. Grind fresh.

I'm not saying you need an expensive one. I plodded along with this little manual number for a long time, and I loved it. I think people thought it was kinda nerdy or quaint or ridiculously painstaking. I loved it.

As for what type of grinder... well, you're looking for consistency on two fronts. You want it to be the same from cup-to-cup. And you want the grind itself to be even (i.e. not boulders and dust all at once). For me, I'd rather use elbow grease on a conical burr grinder than get frustrated by inconsistent blades.

What's the big deal? Stick your nose in a bag of pre-ground coffee several days after you opened it, and then stick your nose in some freshly-ground beans. That's why.

Home Espresso Tips: #1

There seem to be two ways to get good espresso at home: (a) Pay through the nose for a swish machine, or (b) buy takeaways from a good café.

That said, in my experience you can get reasonable results from an entry level machine. I thought I'd share a couple of tips... and not the ones I usually read on coffee websites, either.

Tip #1: Use the right glasses / cups.


Volume is what I'm talking about: how much the glasses hold. If you use a mug, all you'll be able to taste is warm milk. Try smaller glasses (around 200ml, even a little less). At least then you'll be able to taste the coffee.

The Lappy is Back

All six problems with my laptop are now fixed, thanks to the guys at Mac1, Burwood.

For your info, here's what was wrong:

• Bluetooth intermittently unavailable.
• The white LED on the front panel not working at all.
• Cracks in the top-case (both sides).
• The colour LED on the power cord often didn't work.
• The screen intermittently flashes/flickers, with lighter/garbled bits.
  
• Would not enter sleep mode automatically.

Here's what's still wrong:

• Nothing.
  

Repair, and Trees

Last night I submitted the last essay of my degree.

It was quite a relief. Writing the essay was absolutely worth the effort, and mining the riches of O'Donovan's works was one of the most profitable things I've done at college, I reckon. I looked at the issue of homosexuality as a case-study in applying his ethics... wow. Some of the most pastorally deft stuff I've ever seen, I think.

Anyway, today was the first day of beginning to really refocus onto exams... but it was also a day for repair.

My laptop has accumulated about six separate, niggling little issues over the course of the last year or so. I'm not too bothered about it; that's technology. None of them are mission critical, but each of them is annoying. Today I checked her in to be repaired. Here's hoping!

Part of my prep for the ordeal of being separated from my laptop for several days was printing stuff I'd need. I was stunned: I had to print soooo much! People deride the paperless office as a ridiculous myth, but, in all seriousness, the paper-equivalent to the document's I'd access in a few short days runs to something around 70 pages.

As I was printing I could almost smell the exhaust of chainsaws felling old-growth forests by the footy-oval. Speed those repairs!

A Respectable Lust for Power?

O'Donovan makes for uncomfortable reading, at times. (It's a long quote, I know, but worth it)

'Commanding at a distance has long been the sign of power, and the enthusiasm for it is obviously power-oriented. We need at least to be aware of the temptations that accompany such power. When I have entered my credit card number and double-clicked on the "confirm" box, some packer somewhere has to act on my order, some driver struggle through the traffic on the motorway, some postman find my front door. For me, as for the slave-owners of the early modern colonies, it is all too easy to overlook those on whom the gratifying of my desires depends, and to succumb to the illusion that the tips of my fingers on keyboard and mouse have freed them from the constraints of place, too!' (The Ways of Judgment, 260, emphasis original)

Yes, it's out of context and quite provocatively put, but there's something in it, I reckon.