Title of Blog that Sounds Really Deep but Actually Doesn't Mean Anything At All: October 2020

23rd Aug 2020

Oat milk in coffee was amazingly good! Soy milk in coffee was no different from a whitening water diluting the precious espresso, and almond milk on its own did not give me any confidence in its ability to improve coffee, but after trying oat milk in coffee, I can see why it's catching on despite its ridiculous price tag at S$4-6 per litre, as compared to soy milk at about S$1 per liter.

For a vegan liquid, it's amazingly creamy but not exactly sweet. Even fresh whole milk is less creamy though it compensates with sweetness. However, the creaminess of oat milk can be compared with that of cream (dairy).

Since I have a soy milk maker at home, I'm now trying to make oat milk with it as of time of typing.

...

Nope, 200g of oats and filling it to the 1L mark made a whole lot of cooked oats and a little patch of burnt ones. Will try 50g tomorrow.

25th Aug 2020

Didn't try it. The oats are still in a bowl in the fridge, drying up.

Finally encountered a no-show through Carousell yesterday. This seller had over 90 reviews and average 4.8 stars, and he was offering a used entry-level Kenwood kettle in good condition for S$15, so I gave him the benefit of the doubt and waited for an hour despite also giving him a reminder a few hours ahead. Moreover, he was online an hour before I sent him the text, so he was alive.

Two hours after the agreed meet-up time, he came online, and without a word, cancelled the reservation he had accepted from me. Fortunately, Carousell allowed reviews to be exchanged as long as a reservation has been made, so I gave him a 1-star review right after he silently went offline then. Upon discovering that the review policy was to publish the reviews 14 days after the transaction ended or when both parties have given a review for each other, whichever is sooner, and that in the meantime the reviews can be edited, I elaborated on the review.

It's been the second day and he has not given me a review, so if this remains to be true when the 2-week waiting period is up, then at least he's not a complete asshole, just a huge one.

Anyway, to keep this transaction cheap, I took a bus, and along the way was a Fairprice, so I went in to shop for the stuff that's been in my cart for a while - fruits and vegetables. Ended up making vegetable curry last evening, and it was actually one of the best curries I've made if not for it's spiciness. Could not solve that issue.

So this is why I did not do anything about the oats - curry comes first.

And also got a new moka pot a while ago but didn't get around to trying it because I was still testing the Aeropress with the standard paper filters and Prismo. Regarding that, my preference for thicker coffee made the filters a poor option for me, and the Prismo won hands down.

As for the moka pot, just tried it and it's great! Haven't had espresso in a very long time and accidentally added a little too much sugar.

Also, the aeropress can be used in so many styles except espressos that it can really replace the French press. All you need on top of the standard aeropress is a metal filter or the Prismo.

,,,

He actually had the gall to ask if I'm still interested! I'm ignoring him. Not even going to open the app since there's nothing needed right now from there.

Been watching a number of videos by James Hoffmann, initially because of their educational value regarding coffee and his voice, but now also because he knows what he's talking about.

He's part of why I was interested in my bro's Aeropress and Prismo, and now I intend to simply buy the Aeropress parts individually, and only the chamber and plunger because as mentioned earlier, I very much prefer the Prismo to the standard paper filter. Another option is to use the filter cap with a steel filter but... why bother if I only want strong coffee? I could easily get a V60 if I want a lighter brew via the pour over method since it's very affordable.

Or I could water the coffee down. It's same but different.

In any case, this Aeropress set would cost US$15 on top of another US$11.89 for shipping (US$26.89 nett), as compared to the US$25 Prismo with US$6.35 shipping (US$31.35 nett or with the 10% discount code for subscribing to the spam, US$28.85). As for as coffee gadgets go, this are very affordable prices - the real hurdle to the perfect cup is really the grinder.

Coffee mills are really more important than the coffee makers, but we tend to focus on the latter because they're better marketed and on the surface, the difference in grind size and coarseness spread are hard to tell.

All of my grinders are entry level, hence they grind unevenly, only better than a blade coffee mill. Hand grinders use burrs which give a better consistency but they're difficult to motorize due to the inconsistent hardness - anyone who's used a hand grinder would have experienced moments when something seems to jam the grinder. These are the times when a strong motor with higher horsepower (?) is required, but strong, light motors are expensive, and even then, another problem crops up - stability. When the burr shifts due to pushing against harder beans or simply from spinning too quickly, it creates an uneven grind. When the beans jump out like popcorns while grinding, it also creates an uneven grind. This is why a really solid grinder with great strength and stability is required to produce professional-level grind consistency, and why these machines have price tags that run in the thousands of dollars, US.

There are machines now that can do a pretty good job at relatively affordable price ranges as compared to professional machines, but these are still in the high hundreds, like the Niche Zero Grinder which I've decided I would get if I ever have the budget and opportunity to host more dinners. At about S$800-900, this is actually the cheapest good grinder I've ever seen, but this will remain only a possibility for the foreseeable future.

Right now, I'm sticking with my coffee mill that comes with my Philips food processor. If hand grinders are still uneven, motorized blade grinders can work for me too. At worst, Hario does offer good hand grinders in the S$20-40 range, very reasonable numbers for their quality as far as I can tell.

So finer grind does not equate to more extraction in espressos. Scientifically proven in a new study, reason is channeling. When your grind is very fine, at high pressure as is needed to make espressos, water cannot pass through the chunk of fine powder, so it forms a little stream through instead and all the water would go through that channel instead of seeping around the individual grains.

This is a new concept to me and it makes sense.

It is not what I thought it would be though since it seems to be more applicable to industrial production, because the result of the study is that the ideal extraction point involves more water per gram of beans than most espressos. Though you may get more out of the beans with their procedure, it will also be more diluted.

This is like how espressos have evolved outside of Italy. Back in the day, espressos were much thicker and with as much extraction as possible. Today, espressos tend to be lighter than in the past, not because of cost but because you can taste more of the espresso with today's method.

26th Aug 2020

So after getting that portable electric stove aka hotplate, I realized there are also converter plates for gas and induction stoves. No idea what they're really called because they're uncommon, but they are literally just circular steel plates, sometimes with holes and sometimes with handles. The small ones with holes can be placed within a pot on induction stoves I think, but even if that's not true it's no big deal.

What my point is is that I could have gotten one of those to be used with my induction stove, or use it with my gas stove for my glass kettle.

However, it doesn't make a whole lot of difference given that they cost about S$19-20 while the electric hotplate costs only a few dollars more in exchange for more efficiency. The catch is that the steel plate will definitely last a lot longer than the electric stove, especially since it won't be in direct contact with food or water and hence is still perfectly functional even when it's covered in rust in the future.

On second thought, the filter cap of the Aeropress only costs a few dollars, so might as well get it.

So the difference between polyester filling and down filling in jackets has been shrinking (at higher costs) over the years. Fundamentally though, the pros and cons still exist, it's just that you can reduce the cons or increase the pros if you spend more.

To begin, I must explain how they work. It's all about stagnant air when we talk about insulation in garments - trapping air and keeping it still is key to warm clothing. To do this, we use fibres in a loosely-interlinked form, and the quality of how fluffy it is is "loft". Clumping is when they get compressed into a clump, thereby losing loft.

Polyester fibres

- are cheap to produce

- moisture resistant and hence clump less easily

- are larger fibres so they are easier to prevent from sticking out, therefore allowing bigger gaps between threads in the material containing it

- has fewer ethical issues

Down

- is warmer per unit weight

- is resistant to bending when you compress it

Clearly, down is the better material since the main purpose of a jacket is to keep warm while being as light as possible. This is part of why it's the more expensive option.

However, there are several other factors that will come into play as you use a jacket over the long term.

First, which layer will this piece of garment be? The inner, middle or outer layer? The inner and middle will require more breathability than water/wind resistance. The more weather resistant it is, the less breathable it gets, and water resistance is very important in the outer layer, particularly for down jackets.

Will the jacket be folded and compressed regularly? If so, you might want to consider paying more for down filling.

Are you able to give the attention down needs when being washed or afford to get it cleaned professionally? I mean, if you're spending big bucks on a down jacket, it makes absolutely no sense if you're going to scrimp on the money and ruin it in the laundry process.

This is how you wash a down jacket properly:

Will you be very active while wearing it? This means you will likely perspire a lot inside, hence requiring excellent breathability while your constant physical exertion might make insulation a slightly lower priority. In this case, you might prefer polyester filling.

To be clear, there have been technological advances like waterproof down that you might consider while looking for the right winter jacket, depending on your budget. You'll have to consult the salespeople for what's available where you are.

27th Aug 2020

Have you ever had an idea so exciting you could almost tear up over it?

That's the thing I've noticed over the years - just because you have great ideas once in a while, ideas that no matter how you think about it are excellent, doesn't mean it will be a great thing, because execution is a whole different ball game altogether!

It simply makes no sense to consider yourself smart if you have very unique and probably fantastic ideas if they never result in anything.

So I have such an idea now. Wonder if anything will come out of it.

29th Aug 2020

Just started on Wasteland 3. At first I thought it was ok, starting getting annoyed by how the camera view couldn't zoom out further, then the first boss battle happened... with this music.

Mind blown.

This song is instantly recognizable as a very Christian song, but in the context of Wasteland 3, the lamb can easily interpreted as the people weaker than you. Played in the boss battle, immediately as a named antagonist gets his brains blown out onto the screen, this is a song of murder en masse... calmly.

03rd Sep 2020

So far, Wasteland 3 feels more interesting than 3 which I didn't finish because it got draggy.

One great aspect of the game is that you can create as many characters as you want, and not having a full team makes a noticeable difference in combat, hence encouraging you to create a full team early on.

However, as the game progresses and sends me characters to join my team, I find that the new people just don't fit unless I reassign skill points for a few of them. For example, Scotchmo just tried to join but I already have his skills spread over a few of my Rangers, and with his best skill being with the shotgun (while drunk), even this has been covered by my first character that I made (but without being an alcoholic like Scotchmo because alcohol costs money and I didn't think in the beginning of the game that the extra 30% damage is worth the constant search for booze). Moreover, I already have enough damage done by said shotgunner, a sniper, Marshal Kwon's assault rifle, and Lucia's revolver, and a glass cannon brawler who can't wear armour whom I maxed out Coordination ASAP for tons of AP.

So unless the devs gave us a way to reassign skill points, this could be the biggest catch to allowing players to create unlimited characters.

04th Sep 2020

Just made a small step towards making the idea a reality. No real plan here but I don't see the point of planning far ahead before something I can consider a solid step is made in the right direction.

The first step of the very first phase - this is about as far as I went with a few of my previous ideas. TBH things went even further for some things that gave far less excitement.

Exciting ideas. I see why some people can go crazy with work.

06th Sept 2020

Minuscule hitches already coming up. One is in the form of a non-responsive company, the other being a delay.

Was shopping around for supplements since mine are finally running out. Here are the lowest prices I thought were useful for myself and anyone else as benchmarks:

1) Glucosamine sulphate 1500mg are about 31c per daily dose

2) Fish oil 1000mg capsules are about 40c per daily dose

Glucosamine is completely unproven but harmless to take while being affordable, so I don't see why I should splurge on the more expensive formulae that are equally unproven and contain even less glucosamine, sulphate or otherwise.

Fish oil is fish oil. I do take fish-derived products occasionally so my diet has enough fish-related nutrients, and as long as there's omega 3, it should be fine.

I bet in about 2-3 months there were be much better deals, which is fine because my supply will only last the rest of the year.

Wasteland 3 is indeed buggy as expected of a freshly-released game, but it's still fantastic. Still a lot more interesting than the previous game.

The difficulty is a lie though - on Normal, enemies of a higher level than mine aren't particularly challenging. Maybe my characters just happen to have good synergy, but I accidentally went to a place for higher levels, had to rush to a time-sensitive mission there, and beat it without having to reload.

That said, I have to admit when I made my characters, priority was given to their combat abilities to a greater degree than the devs did for theirs.

09th Sep 2020

Finished Wasteland 3. Holy cow! Expected from the outset that the three kids were just the buildup to the actual boss, but it built up nonetheless. The ending was just beyond my expectations - they made a song that is based on your choices, ie they made multiple versions of the lyrics and got the singer to sing them all!

Absolutely satisfying, especially after the last game's underwhelming ending.

Another Christian song, but again, re-interpreted in the context of the game where as before, it was played in a battle but this time without the shocking dialogue scene preceding it. I guess they can't keep pulling that trick in a single game. Really fits the mood though.

Spoiler alert!

Haven't made one of these in so many years LOL! Probably because I haven't played many games when they're still brand new, let alone ones that I want to talk about.

This time the dilemma is on whether it is better to be a stable nation built on both glorious deeds and morally obscene actions, or an unstable one with decentralized leadership and a clean conscience.

Initially supported Angela Deth's idealism but Lucia's last words had a point - the rule of law should be upheld, although my take is that the Saul Buchanan had done nothing but be honest and upfront with me, and his Colorado was indeed a stable nation where people could live in safety and prosper. His past decisions might have been tyrannical as they said, but the result was a rare gem in the post-apocalyptic world. Kwon also had a point - it is better to change things from within. It's not like they're in dire need of immediate change, and killing the Patriarch would have indirectly punished the citizens who had nothing to do with his decisions.

TBH, I find that the Colorado in this story is similar to Singapore in some ways. Anyone who's familiar with what our government has done in the past would know there were quite a number of events we're not entirely proud of, to the point where we basically skipped over decades in our history textbooks, but these things have led to the Singapore we know today. Should our government be removed and punished immediately for these sins? How does this help beyond assuaging our collective guilt?

No lasting nation was ever built with clean hands and on a clean conscience.

Anyway I reloaded and immediately felt relieved while siding with the Patriarch. Don't know if I will ever play this game again for another ending because seriously, I feel that this is the best ending and the others would have felt a lot less comfortable.

The only part I'm unsure of is the Gippers - I transferred the Reagan AI to the Machine Intelligence and destroyed the cult, expecting the MI to allow the AI to leave if he wanted to, and to take over the oil wells, but they did neither. Would it have been better to let the AI take over Valour's mind and become human? But then he would have wanted to stay with the Nancys, therefore the Gippers would have needed to stay alive, in turn meaning the peace-loving Commune would have to be destroyed. However, this would also have let Colorado prosper by having the Gippers around to work the last existing oil wells, so it's not entirely bad. Is there even a real moral choice here or is this scenario entirely grey?

Ok, maybe I could play the game again siding the Patriarch but with his kids following me instead of going to jail.

End of spoilers

It will be a long time before another game of this caliber comes along again.

TBH I didn't even remember backing this game but after a quick check on my emails, it turns out I did it in 2016 on Fig, for 33 USD. Weird, because I didn't even enjoy Wasteland 2 enough to complete it. On the other hand, those were the best 33USD I've ever spent on games.

10th Sep 2020

Missing Wasteland 3 already. One of the songs stuck in my head while I was making coffee and had to listen to the songs again, first thing in the morning with my coffee.

A whole new GROUP of Arabica coffee varieties have been formally discovered in Yemen, named the "Yemenia". This means there could be a whole new wave of flavour profiles for people who like lighter-bodied coffees. For people like me, it shouldn't make a huge difference because I prefer dark and darker medium roasts, which no longer retain most of the initial flavours.

11th Sep 2020

Started looking into more boxer shorts but couldn't find any good ones at reasonable prices, so went back to Jshoppers to check out if it's still around.

So it's still around and still sells what I wear, but after checking for old order confirmation emails, I also noticed they have stopped sending promotional emails since 2018, even though I didn't unsubscribe. Moreover, they have started to display their prices in CNY in addition to JPY by default.

It's likely that business has been booming after opening up to China and they have no motivation to spam customers, although it's still weird that they haven't sent a single one since July 2 years ago. I've checked my spam too, none there.

Also went directly to that brand's website but it became almost impossible to order from them since they don't ship overseas, and by limiting my surname and given name to ten characters each, and requiring both in kana on top of that, it seemed there was no way I could input the name my forwarders assigned me, which was my full name plus my identification code. Even if only the code was used without my name, plus my name without the code for the kana part, it still detected that the code wasn't a name. According to the customer service rep, I have to enter the code, it's actually more important than my name - I can omit my name and only use the ID code, but not vice versa.

So after checking Jshopper's slightly marked up price again, I decided it's not worth the effort to save maybe 10 dollars on my order.

Anyway, they have a new kind of boxer shorts now called "hammock shorts". It's a kind of boxer shorts with the just the portion of a pair of brief specifically for the genital sewn underneath, like a hammock for your dick and balls.

Looked interesting at first, but after thinking about it, it just wasn't such a great idea after all. It's for people who want to wear briefs but don't want to show that much skin, perhaps for those who tend to wear nothing but their boxers at home.

14th Sep 2020

Time to figure out what to do with it.

17th Sep 2020

Sometimes things are a lot less complicated than we think.

26th Sep 2020

Restarted P90X classic and I was so surprised by how unfamiliar it was. Almost every exercise seemed new, it's not like I faintly recall them, it's as if I've never done P90X before, except the wall squats, but only indirectly because I remember being a little surprised that P90X3 didn't have anything that required the wall.

It's been over a week, just did the first session of the second week, and things have definitely improved. For one, I know my pace now, and I didn't go crazy in the beginning only to resort to knee pushups by the end of the second set. And from this week on, I'm doing the Ab Ripper X when the schedule calls for it. Today was the first and I could not even handle half of everything.

As long as I'm careful, it will be great.

29th Sep 2020

I suspect I have been overtraining. Noticed since the day before that I wake up with heavy eyelids even when I have slept for 8 hours. Changes in sleeping posture didn't affect it, even woke up slightly early when it's still dark and went back to sleep immediately, no body aches.

If it was just one day, ok it happens, maybe my sleeping posture was bad but not bad enough to lead to body aches. Two, maybe I need to consciously sleep in my usual sleeping position/posture. It's the third day today though.

It could be other things, but overtraining is the simplest possibility, so I'm taking a break today. Prolonged fatigue, increase in confusion/tension, loss of motivation, loss of appetite, all signs of overtraining, or diabetes. Definitely hoping it's the former.

04th Oct 2020

Just realized Singapore, like many former colonies out there, was technically a corporate colony defined by greed. This place was started and run by the East India Company, a joint-stock company, and according to corporate law, such a company is its own entity and shareholders have only limited liability. Singapore, like Hong Kong, was just lucky enough to have a great location instead of plentiful resources, so it was made into a free port instead of being used for agriculture or mining which get treated a lot worse.

And corporate colonies are often featured in games, like the upcoming "The Outer Worlds" featuring the scifi version of what used to happen in many places around the world - people sign up to work in those colonies hoping for a better future only to find themselves chained to their new masters and forced to work till they die.

In the real world, history may yet repeat as private corporations are now taking over space travel and exploration, a field that used to be dominated by governments. If Musk succeeds in starting his Martian colony, we can only hope he is a good enough human being to keep it ethical, but even then, he will be the first of many, and with many, there are bound to be some bad apples.

14th Oct 2020

Had a stiff neck since Saturday, strangely didn't get better by Sundau, got worse by Monday so went to the polyclinic. Doctor diagnosed muscle tightness, prescribed muscle relaxant pills and regular stretching.

Did not get better. Pills helped me sleep but over the days I noticed the pains are mainly in the morning when I wake up, and gradually gets better over the course of the day. Exercise in particular helps for some reason, and it's sleep that makes it worse to the point where for the last few nights, I've been woken up by the intense pain as I change position while sleeping. Last night I slept mainly on my back, which led to less sleep, but felt much better when the sun came up. This means it's my sleeping posture that's doing it, but I'd also switch to the big polyester pillow and it didn't help last night when I tried to sleep on my side initially. Putting something hard under my neck did not have any significant result, and made it even harder to turn.

Now that I've eliminated the possibilities to just my side sleeping position, maybe that will help the doctor when I return to the polyclinic tomorrow. It's Wednesday now, been almost a week, a simple bad stiff neck should not last this long, especially one that wakes me up at night, so I definitely require a doctor's attention. It's no longer a simple need for pain relief - something is really off.

I just hope it's not like that time during my uni days when I got inexplicable sharp pains in my eyes during afternoon lectures that lasted for a week before I visited the clinic, and when the GP couldn't find anything (and because it had been a week), he referred me to an eye specialist, who immediately diagnosed oily skin. Apparently my facial oil had built up so much over the course of the day, it started flowing into my eyes by the afternoon, causing the major irritation, and because oil couldn't be easily rinsed off by tears, each time it happened it lasted a while. Epic waste of time and money.

But better safe than sorry.

16th Oct 2020

The doctor yesterday again assured me that it's just tight muscle. Not sure how it relates to sleeping on my side, she said something about lack of support causing the pain, but I didn't think too much about it till afterwards.

In any case, it is likely caused by poor form while doing abdominal exercises, which makes sense given that I've been doing the Ab Ripper X since week 2, and week 3 just ended a few days ago. So I'm not doing it this week, and speaking of this, I am repeating the regular workout for week 4 even though it's meant to be a rest week. I just don't feel ready for phase 2 yet, and I've been spacing out the days by adding extra rest days in between workout days, so a rest week doesn't seem very necessary.

21st Oct 2020

Looks like heavy rain tonight.

Also just realized Caterpillar makes supposedly industrial fans that we can use at home too. It's only about S$110 and rated at 100W, so both price and power-consumption are very normal. That said, all my fans at home are KDK P40US that are usually bought second-hand for around S$50, and they are all 50W, so this isn't normal for my home, just normal in the fan market.

Realized I'm already starting to forget details about my time in Argentina, Uruguay and Antarctica. Should probably record everything down.

Neck's mostly recovered. Most likely it was the Ab Ripper sessions. Now that I've stopped it, everything is fine. Looks like my abs are not ready for it.

Didn't know Pilot makes such affordable fountain pens. Wonder if they're good. Then again, it's Pilot, can't be too bad.

Didn't even realize it's been roughly two months since this post was started. Time to post it.

Title of Blog that Sounds Really Deep but Actually Doesn't Mean Anything At All

Wednesday 21 October 2020

Rant 1261 / New Fountain Pen!

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