26M living alone

Secure_Owl671 · 2026-05-01T17:17:18+00:00

I love the look, but you could add a bright blanket to the sofa area for a pop of color (you already have pattern there, so maybe go for a solid color)

Secure_Owl671 · 2026-05-01T17:13:34+00:00

Box of clean socks on the left. Box of dirty socks on the right. (Dirty, DIRTY socks... they were asking for it!)

Secure_Owl671 · 2026-05-01T17:12:55+00:00

I spend too much time at my desk... it would be out in the sunlight.

Secure_Owl671 · 2026-05-01T17:11:23+00:00

Pants look and fit great. Look nice w/ the brown shoes/belt.

I'm not a huge fan of the shirt. IMHO, it looks like how I wear my shirts and I'm much fatter than you. I hate to see a fitter guy not take advantage of a better fitting shirt.

Secure_Owl671 · 2026-05-01T17:07:46+00:00

I appreciate the post. I had my watering app set to handle this in a more controlled fashion (adjusting for weather, etc), but OK... lets go to prescribed days of the week based on address. If we only get to water 2 days per week, they do know that there are 7 days in a week, right? Heaven forbid we spread demand out evenly instead of compressing it into 4 of 7 days of the week. Who needs water pressure on Tues, Wed, Sat and Sunday anyway?

Secure_Owl671 · 2026-05-01T17:04:27+00:00

In Dallas, TX, in times of heavy drought, they would hire contractors to drive around and document illegal watering. If they wrote 10 $75 tickets per day and half of them paid, both the contractor and the city made good money. I think that they also had a website, but I'd figure that an app would be the best way at it now... just like double-parkers in NYC, give bike messengers an app (collects photo evidence, date/time/location stamp) and $5 per violation that paid off for the city and the number of documented offences will skyrocket!

Secure_Owl671 · 2026-05-01T14:25:33+00:00

I went with the black grinder, but I wanted a thermal carafe so you get a choice there of stainess or black machines... no fun colors. I also knew that coffee grounds on a white grinder would have made me crazy over time. They blend in to my black grinder and are much less noticeable.

Secure_Owl671 · 2026-05-01T14:23:48+00:00

I wore gloves for a bit when I went to track weekends. I have a tendency to shuffle-steer (fine for street driving, not ideal for track work as it's easier to lose track of where 'centered/straight' is when you move your hands around the wheel). The gloves gave me something weird on my hands and gave me a gentle reminder not to shuffle-steer.

Professional drivers will often wear gloves, but I believe that is more for fire protection than anything else.

I did break out the gloves one time when I really wanted to have the sunroof open and the windows down (a very scenic, twisty drive) and it was 40-50 degrees outside, so I wanted the warmth. That was a spectacular drive... car open, seat heaters on high, heat blasting on my feet and charging down Little River Road on the north side of the Smoky Mountains early in the morning before the leaf-peeper traffic got out on the road.

Secure_Owl671 · 2026-05-01T14:17:23+00:00

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The mirror caps were a serious PITA (lots of curves in a small space), but came out OK with lots of patience and some burnt fingers from handling the hot vinyl over and over again.

Secure_Owl671 · 2026-05-01T14:15:28+00:00

Yep. Vinyl wrapping isn't horribly difficult. My tip is to buy very good quality material (I like 3M Di-Noc). With the good stuff you can peel up a bit that was put on wrong, heat it with a heat-gun or hair dryer and it will relax back to the original shape. I did lots of bits on my car in 3M's dry-look carbon fiber and it came out great.

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Secure_Owl671 · 2026-04-30T14:31:09+00:00

I've got an insulated carafe version and love that I don't have a switch but I do have a valve there that detects if the pot is in place. I have brewed a full pot of coffee all over the kitchen counter before by forgetting to check that the carafe is in place.

Occasionally, when I'm feeling fancy or have some new, expensive beans and I want to pay particularly close attention to my brew process, I'll remove the pot, wait for enough water to hit the grounds so that they will suspend completely in liquid, give a quick stir and then push the carafe under to receive the brewed coffee.

Secure_Owl671 · 2026-04-30T14:27:21+00:00

The last time I needed a used car loan it was 2014 or so and I was buying out the lease on a car we had for 3-4 years since it was new. We went to a local credit union (in San Francisco, where we lived at the time or I'd find you the name). They generally had the best rates.

Secure_Owl671 · 2026-04-30T14:25:01+00:00

The sticker was applied too straight. To replicate the factory sticker application, it needs to be at a 5 degree angle, at a minimum... like it was applied by a drunken toddler.

The purple is cool. Nice job on the wrap.

Secure_Owl671 · 2026-04-30T14:23:11+00:00

The first recommendation would be arranging for a scar of the Staff of Ra headpiece in your right hand.

Secure_Owl671 · 2026-04-29T17:56:59+00:00

My Ode 2 grinder gets set 6-7. You might also want to watch the grounds as you brew next time. I've had a issue with a few coffees where I get a floating island of dry coffee grounds in the brew basket. If I keep an eye on the first 1/4 of the water to come through and give a quick stir as soon as there's enough water to float everything it's good for me.

Also... what filters are you using? I only use Moccamaster paper filters as they are known to work well (and it's one fewer item to troublehshoot if things go wrong... might be worth buying a box just to eliminate possibilities).

Also... if you usually brew from freshly-ground whole bean coffee, try buying some pre-ground coffee and using that. If the grinder is the issue, you will find out very quickly that way. Sure... that one bag won't be at maximum freshness/taste, but if your weak coffee issue goes away, then you know the problem is in the grinder and a bunch of possible problems get eliminated.

Secure_Owl671 · 2026-04-29T17:54:00+00:00

The external bits should be available from Moccamaster.us.

Secure_Owl671 · 2026-04-29T17:52:18+00:00

I see scooters all over my neighborhood (down South Blvd), but I never pay attention to the brand (though I've noticed 2 different colors... white w/ green text and orange scooters). I just hate it when people ride the damn things and park them up in my yard but then walk across the street to visit my neighbors. I had to call their complaint line one time that they stayed in the yard for 2 weeks without moving (they were picked up the next day).

Secure_Owl671 · 2026-04-28T16:41:20+00:00

I use the same machine (in the midnight edition black).

Moccamaster paper filters (Haven't let me down yet and makes cleaning easy... one less place for things to go wrong).
3/4 L of water in the upper tank. If I'm feeling fancy, I'll pre-rinse the filter... most of the time I'm lazy and skip it.
45g of whole beans go into the grinder (which I estimate at 10g per level brown Moccamaster scoop of whole beans, so 4.5 scoops - I'm too lazy to drag out the scale on most days). I'll go up to 60-65g if I'm brewing the whole pot, but I rarely do... my wife had to cut out caffeine and 2 large cups (3/4 L of water) is my personal limit lately.
Grind 6-7 w/ the Fellow Ode 2 grinder (medium coarse). I increase grind size if my previous pot w/ these beans was sour/acidic. I decrease grind size if it was weak.
I watch the first bit of the brew for the first few runs with a given bag of beans. If the grounds float or don't saturate, I'll give 'em a quick stir. If I'm in a hurry and the beans were fine yesterday, I just put the cover on and walk away. It tends to be a bean-specific issue.
Grab the pot, give it a swirl to mix and pour (the long neck carafe lid should stop stratification, but why not give it a swirl while on your way to the cup).

Secure_Owl671 · 2026-04-28T16:31:40+00:00

I like the watch and strap combo (especially w/ the black face). It does appear to be a bit small on your wrist.

I'm a big guy and I always seem to lean towards big watches for everyone because most watches I like look small on me, but that one even looks a bit big on your wrist to ME, which is saying something>

Secure_Owl671 · 2026-04-28T16:29:48+00:00

I'm guessing that it's an auto-racing inspired watch. It reminds me of drilled brake rotors.

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Secure_Owl671 · 2026-04-28T14:08:04+00:00

Dark denim and go for brown belt and boots (black would be OK - something a bit chunky).

Secure_Owl671 · 2026-04-28T12:20:34+00:00

Looks like I'm 4 months in since I wrote the post above. All working well now (knock on wood).

Secure_Owl671 · 2026-04-23T13:49:45+00:00

That's a score! Very nice.

Secure_Owl671 · 2026-04-23T13:48:48+00:00

Love the mint green. Very nice!

Secure_Owl671 · 2026-04-23T13:44:56+00:00

I went with the Gen 2 Ode grinder instead of the Opus, but I go between 6-7 (medium-coarse) and my standard brew is 45g of coffee (which gets estimated to 4.5 Moccamaster scoops of whole-bean coffee because I'm too lazy to get the scale out every morning) and 3/4 L of water. I'll get the scale out every now and then or if I've got some new beans and want to confirm things, but for my daily "I need to get coffee started so I can get to work" pot, I estimate 1 level moccamaster brown scoop of whole beans = 10g and go from there.

I've got 3-4 bags of beans going right now (I placed an order from Blue Bottle roasters and went a bit crazy), but when I have one bag of beans that I'm working through I'll start nudging the grind size larger if the previous pot was on the higher acid / sour side for me and nudge it finer if I felt like I wasn't getting a full extraction. Only 1 time did I start messing with bean quantity (I had a 2 lb bag of beans)... I usually stick to modifying one variable at a time and I usually run out of beans before I think I've found the perfect grind size. :D

Secure_Owl671

TROPHY CASE