An occasional link post of items current or past I found interesting, insightful or perhaps somewhat infuriating. Some likely warrant further thought and a little more commentary, however you cannot write about them all.

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A few peripheral fountain pen accessories – Fountain Pen Blog

Just an initial list of 26 accessories to go with those fountain pens, and depending on your time in this hobby you may have less or indeed more. I’m sure most of us have versions of these, if not the same ones. I too have a Dremel 3000, purchased to modify the drip tray of an espresso machine. At least I’ll be able to turn its attention towards my pens when the time arises. When hobbies indeed collide.

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Deep Work, with Cal Newport – Focused Podcast Episode 174

Yes, a podcast episode — not the book, which incidentally is an equally good read. Some thoughts here on the real benefits of AI (the human-computer interface) and what may be a red herring in the supposed impacts on knowledge workers. Also, why we are now worse than ever at organising our workflows in large corporations.

This episode is a great example of the benefits a podcast has in the Q&A style of getting to the heart of a few topics quickly, rather than reading thousands of words in a book or blog posts.

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How can specialty coffee roasters use blends to drive brand identity? – Perfect Daily Grind

Blends! Have I told you how much I love blends? I think I have. While a lot of single origin coffees are fantastic at showcasing the story of the producer and origin, I think blends also have the ability to tell the story of a roaster — or at least a glimpse of how they think and what they are about.

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AeroPress Releases Flow Control Filter Cap, Other New Products Rumored – Sprudge

It’s great to see Aeropress maintaining the product innovation momentum, and this new Flow Control Filter Cap looks interesting. I’d drifted away from the Aeropress after purchasing a Delter Press a few years ago. Also, did someone mention a larger Aeropress XL? Might be time I became reacquainted…

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My Restored Vintage Lever Machine Arrives! – James Hoffmann on You Tube

A very, very dangerous link at best. This is the tail end of a vintage espresso machine restoration, which ended up on the counter at Prufrock in London. Watch part 1 here, though if you just want to see a thing of beauty, watch the main link above. Never thought I wanted one until now…

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Boring Can Be Better: In Defence of Standard Stationery – The Gentleman Stationer

I stand with Joe here:

Honestly, the fountain pen internet and social media tends to be driven in large part by people who either don’t actually write with their pens everyday, or use their inks for art and journaling where practical considerations are less relevant. When those creating the content consider the inks “boring,” they don’t get promoted and fall by the wayside

Content creation and practicality don’t always intersect, and even when they do, our individual circumstances and tastes invariably differ. The more we hear about “boring” — read: practical, useful and relevant — the better.

An occasional link post from items in my feed which I found interesting, insightful or perhaps somewhat infuriating. Some likely warrant further thought and a little more commentary, however you cannot write about them all.

Adding Milk To Coffee May Have Serious Anti-Inflammatory Benefits – Sprudge

A warm embrace. How I treat any coffee order and their attached person. The coffee-related posts on this blog would naturally lead to the thought I’m a snob about the stuff, however in reality it’s the exact opposite. I drink coffee black, white, short, long and anything in between, and you should too — but it’s not about me. Its about how you like it.

Something magical happens when milk touches espresso. There’s an alchemy to that tan elixir whereby the sum is greater than its parts. It’s velvety, rich, sweet, suitable both for the first coffee of the day and the finish to a perfect dinner. And it turns out, there may be some healthful synchronicity to the pair as well, as a new study finds that adding milk to coffee may double its anti-inflammatory effects.

There are many very good reasons people do or don’t add milk, sugar, or anything else to coffee. Outright snobbery isn’t one of them. A simple no thanks will do. When confronted with a down the nose “oh no… I never add milk, it spoils what the producer intended…” perhaps a simple “oh I’m doing it for the anti-inflammatory benefits… wait… you aren’t aware?” retort might be useful. Failing that, simply professing you’re undying love for milky coffee is also more than fine.

Write Less – Matt Gemmell

As always, Matt Gemmell knows his way around a conceptual thought. Here as it pertains to short form blog posts:

It’s an absolute fallacy that longer works are better, or more valuable; indeed, shorter pieces are more likely to be read and digested, which intrinsically increases their value.

I found this interesting, for I’ve never really been able to drag myself away from thinking the blog is only for longer, fleshed out pieces either (I say with a sideways glance while posting this in a short form link post… yet case in point, the glance returns serve as I write too many words about a couple of links that caught my eye… the battle continues).

The Pods Must Be Crazy: Why The Coffee Pod Carbon Impact Story You Just Read Is Wrong – Sprudge

A forthright opinion on a recent study into the climate impact of some coffee brewing methods, which claimed coffee pods have a significantly lower carbon footprint than filter coffee. Speciality coffee publication Sprudge in response:

Maybe instead of writing about coffee as though it were an interchangeable set of widgetified variables, researchers in the future will choose to actually, you know, engage with this stuff beyond the spreadsheets in the course of their research. If they’d so much as attempted to brew themselves a cup of coffee using the incorrect brew ratio in their study, it would have become immediately apparent their numbers—and thus conclusions derived from these numbers—were significantly out of whack.

Arguably there are certain assumptions in studies like these, though perhaps many folk brew by the “scoop” rather than the scale. I’ve certainly never brewed a pourover using the ratio outlined in the study, nor does anyone I know, so I wouldn’t mind knowing where the numbers came from either.

Selling Low: Corporate Dressing Down – The Contender

One from the archives, though new to me as I poked around online the other day. I do think we have lost a beat with the post Covid dress code, however I also think as with many things pandemic related, it was coming down the pipeline anyway, and just arrived a little sooner.

A suit is such an easy solution for anybody in a position of authority. I may have lost this battle, but I’ll be interested to see how people feel about being represented in court by a lawyer in athleisure.

Also, does working from home mean usual home dressing? I’m not so sure, I mean cameras are often on these days, though most of the time from what I’ve seen, people don’t seem to care too much. Each to their own I guess, and all I will say is I notice — people notice.

Mastodon

I have now set up an account over on Mastodon: @petedenison@mstdn.social. Though I’m not sure what else to tell you, one thing I will say is that the sign up process is far simpler than what I’d initially believed.

What will I use it for? That I’m not sure, and you won’t find any posts as yet, however I guess we’ll see how things develop over the next little bit.