Thanks to the Romans, we also have super messy units for length

But we can still blame the English for the furlong.

It would be needlessly expensive, but…

I’d say I have a fairly medium-grade routine.

I hand grind whole beans. Not even super-special premium beans, most likely just the huge bag of Kirkland whole beans. Maybe not even ground same-day, quite possibly ground and then put into a ball jar ahead of time. They are hand-ground, though, with a grinder that is adjusted to a high level of coarseness.

The grounds are measured into a French press. I use a digital kitchen scale so that it’s always the same amount. I use a kettle to get the water to 200F. Pour over the grounds until they’re soaked. Slosh them around a bit for thirty seconds. Pour in the rest of the water up to the fill line on the French press. Set a timer for four minutes. Press down the plunger and pour into a mug, plus a glass bottle for the excess. That’s it. Yes, it’s particular, but I am pretty sure it’s not an ultra-premium process. I’ve had better coffee in a decent hotel. The main thing is exactly measuring what I’m doing, so I get consistent results.

I had my mom and sister over and they complimented my coffee. I didn’t make a big deal about it and thanked them.

The next morning, my sister is up before me. I come out to the dining room and she’s pouring coffee from the press. Suddenly she goes “Oooh! This coffee is strong! Too strong! I’ll have to water it down!”

I ask, “Well how much grounds did you use?”

“Oh, I don’t know, I just eyeballed it.”

“How long did you let it brew?”

“Oh, I don’t know. It’s been a while. It’s still in the press.”

Well, yes, that would possibly result in an unpredictable result. This is why I have a hard time vacationing with my family.

What a terrible day to have eyes.

Unknowingly?

I read a lot of the Hugo Award short story collections and it’s a great way to get into sci-fi. They’re usually pretty good if not excellent. If you like the author’s style, you can go out and look up more of their work. If you don’t, not a problem, it’s just a short story anyway.

This video makes some great points about how movies don’t feel real anymore. Digital color grading is part of it, but the very short version is that movies don’t give us the sensory information or speak to us in the visual language that we need to feel like the movie is real. Watching the video gave me a whole vocabulary for how to critique failings in modern movies.

🥁✨

I understand that this looks like a pretty good setup for a Final Destination movie.

Or, hell, even if Bill Clinton is a weird old criminal creep, he’s still willing to throw himself under the bus to destroy another weird old criminal creep. He’s in effect saying “Yeah, motherfucker, let’s do this thing. I’m willing to destroy what’s left of my public reputation if it’ll take you down, too.”

Relevant xkcd

I’m not actively looking for a Pug / Lhasa Apso mix, but if I ever adopt one I’m definitely going to name it Pablo Pugapso.

Goku was burning through a Type II Kardshev civilization’s worth of energy. He was hongry. Flavor was definitely secondary.

Different kinds of hits, but… goddamn. I saw a guy in a rugby game take a full-on elbow to the face while running full tilt and go pinwheeling to the ground… and the game continued without so much as a comment from the announcer.