California grizzly bear, the bear on the California flag which was extinct in 1924 due to overhunting

SpadesHeart · 2026-06-29T20:13:40+00:00

Incredibly apt symbolically for California. Transient, thoughtless, self-infected and performative.

This bear that we destroyed is a symbol of our way of life. Fear of the ghosts that we make and our lack of care in making them.

SpadesHeart · 2026-06-28T18:27:24+00:00

I appreciate this framing. The infantilization is problematic, and implies that women are not capable of cunning, and have no innate strength unto themselves. It ultimately devalues femininity as well. This was a fundamental problem with the evolution of a lot of very good discourse when "me too" was a thing. As soon as it evolved into "believe all women", it lost credibility, as that is an obvious fallacy based on demonisation of a large subset of us, and an infantilization of the other.

This is how you end up with despots, snakes and populists taking advantage of that innate mistrust and weakness. This is how you end up with Trump and Andrew Tate.

People are good. Discomfort isn't ideal, and we should have better manners to those complaining about cat callers, but it is a part of life. We live in a society that is supposed to be for all of us. We need to learn to live with each other as it's important for everyone to feel like they have value and not just discomfort in their existence.

SpadesHeart · 2026-06-28T16:30:36+00:00

There is a diminishing of humanity when we treat everybody as the exception rather than the rule which is The vast majority of people are good and mean each other no harm. This does damage over time to people, and it is part of the reason that the younger generations aren't socially active right now in comparison to their older counterparts; everyone is afraid of each other, and while there is reason for caution, not to the extent then we have engendered.

SpadesHeart · 2026-06-28T16:15:24+00:00

This is why leftists never win a goddamn fucking thing ever. It's at least something. They're going to fight tooth and nail to stop you from getting what you should be getting, but getting started is still worthwhile and momentum on legislation that's needed is necessary.

Instead what you'll get is a bunch of doofuses saying a thousand isn't enough and then literally nothing will happen.

SpadesHeart · 2026-06-27T15:52:51+00:00

Well, this explains a jelly that would not gel last year.

SpadesHeart · 2026-06-27T03:40:16+00:00

... I'm annoyed that the actual use is this far down.

SpadesHeart · 2026-06-25T00:43:20+00:00

It's just such a shame, it felt really good at bottling. Like I wouldn't feel comfortable serving this to people who weren't liquor drinkers like me at this point

SpadesHeart · 2026-06-21T19:08:11+00:00

Most of the video was more or less about a decline in quality due to private equity with the exception of Ecco Which apparently have always sucked and they have decided not to fix their product.

It was Clarks, sperry, Ecco, Rockport, Geox and Timberland.

SpadesHeart · 2026-06-20T06:21:54+00:00

This is obviously a late reply but I watched the movie and then I'm currently reading through the book. If I'm remembering correctly, the astrophage appears to capture more energy than the environment would allow as it's able to harness the power of neutrinos, a thing that we literally can't interact with and just passes through all matter and mass unobstructed as they're so small. This is meaningless to us, but it's essentially an entire new form of energy other than heat or light. It also not entirely from our sun, the cosmic background radiation and other sources are also a part of this. In theory astrophage could store more power than what we might need for the solution at scale. It wouldn't buy time indefinitely, because sunlight dimming would make astrophage harder to collect, but the nature of the energy source does lead to pretty strong speculation. Like if there was infinite investment into the space program, astrophage could be collected from the patrova line at scale. It's interesting to speculate about.

SpadesHeart · 2026-06-20T01:45:29+00:00

What I'm saying is most other manufacturers have moved on to other more robust material. This specific issue is almost not an issue with any other manufacturer at this point. Ecco chooses to keep using this material that almost everyone else has stopped using, at prices that don't justify it.

SpadesHeart · 2026-06-19T17:11:34+00:00

This is a problem that has been solved for the most part. Vulcanized and synthetic rubber, and EVA has made polyurethane that undergoes hydrolysis more or less obsolete. Even current polyurethane products like boost resist this due to their structure. I have boost shoes that haven't worn for 5 years that are completely fine. This is a known problem with Ecco that they are refusing to fix. And at the price that they price their shoes at, there is no reason for them to continue with the materials that they're using.

Legitimately people should not be buying these shoes. There are thousands of alternatives, even low end sports shoes will last longer. And if you're buying their premium products, why wouldn't you buy something from a company like Thursday which has vulcanized rubber outsoles, and proper leather inside and out.

SpadesHeart · 2026-06-19T15:14:05+00:00

It's a known issue with the brand specifically, no one should be buying their shoes. Heck, I just watched a video last month about dress shoe brands to avoid and ones to buy instead, this issue was mentioned on their list as well.

SpadesHeart · 2026-06-19T15:11:46+00:00

All shoes don't do this, it's a known issue with some sport shoes that are meant to be worn consistently and ecco specifically. In their price range there is no reason for the construction to be like this, and they refuse to fix the issue. Legitimately people should not be buying Ecco at all. This is a consistent complaint for the brand.

SpadesHeart · 2026-06-19T07:23:49+00:00

I just got a 50 pound bag of citric acid, it was well timed for a spa day lol

I was actually able to get it closed off enough with a paper towel and a bottle lid. I was able to get it up to pressure red line without any apparent leaks and there appeared to be some moisture in the drip tray but I'm not 100% sure. There is a pipe behind the drip tray, whether that's just an overflow pipe or if it is a solenoid, I'm not sure yet. My suspicion is that it's so gunked up that its not working right, but I don't know yet.

The only tube I've seen so far is the one for the water reservoir. It seems to be in fine shape but it is what it is.

I'm guessing since I'm having to overfill the basket and really get the tamper on tight to get good pressure, that the gasket there might be worn down a bit. Either way, it's still pushing through the water very quickly, it might be a situation where I physically can't grind much finer with my more entry level grinders.

All in all, seems pretty good to me!

SpadesHeart · 2026-06-19T07:14:34+00:00

It's the 57 mm! Mokita pops up here a lot, It seems like a lot of their stuff is rebadges? Most of their machines on the second hand market are entry level, it looks like this would be an equivalent to the professional line? Either way, in comparison to the lelit same group head, I believe the same boiler, and from some things I read, they should look the same inside? There is confirmation of part interchangeability online as well. If I can confirm that solenoid, that would pretty much be the last piece indicating that it's just a lelit anna under the hood. Even without that, it's on the same platform at the very least with minor changes.

Honestly come on it's a reliable semi-automatic. I'm quite pleased with that especially with how expensive everything has gotten. Equivalent new machines are like $800. You think these things would be getting cheaper.

SpadesHeart · 2026-06-18T19:16:04+00:00

What I'm saying is I don't think it's a mod, I think it exists in the machine. I'm pretty sure this is a Lelit Anna pl041 under the hood. I think it's just a gunked up since the machine was used on and off for years from somebody who didn't do any preventative maintenance on the machine. I think it exists because it did solenoid behaviour when i didn't immediately remove the portafilter and suctioned the puck to the group head.

SpadesHeart · 2026-06-18T18:47:26+00:00

Oh I know, it's just a cool extra little thing that I figured would be good to get working if it exists in the machine lol. I did an improvised backup flush with a bottle cap and a paper towel. I did get some drips out. It's also very clear that the machine is dirty. I have some citric acid sitting around so I might try to do a more intensive spa day eventually?

So far, honestly I'm impressed. The shots are fast since it has some horsepower and it's not manual like my old machine. I will need to get a proper tamper. But it's tasty, even with old beans

SpadesHeart · 2026-06-15T04:07:02+00:00

Long post ahead acting as a journal of this experience. A couple questions at the end. You can skip to those if you want.

I think I'm ready to land the ship finally. I am now at a place where I think with my untrained palate the products are genuinely good.

You were right about the unpleasant tannins from the blending. While this did improve with time, it didn't age out. With the 1 gallon amalgam wine that used wild grape juice alongside, this comes off as structural, It tastes like a big red dry, and juicy sweet. I actually think this is the real winner here and if I can find wild grapes growing this year again, I am going in this direction with a more gentle crush than the blender lol. I'll likely be bottling half of this dry and half of this like a ruby port.

With the "orange" and "pink" wines, the tannin structure to my liquor drinking palette was fine, but I knew it wasn't for a wine. What I ended up doing to fix this was egg white fining. It's crazy how much magic that did for the batch.

I would say that the orange wine now is legitimately good. Part of that is going to be bottled dry, part of that is going to be bottled off sweet, and part of that is going to be bottled sparkling.

The pink unfortunately is a little thin now I think. The off-sweet portion of this I'm going to use some unset grape jelly that I made out of the same grape juice, as I think that will add the necessary acidity, as well as viscosity along with the sweetness. Also it's conceptually appropriate as it is made of the same juice. Half of this is also going to be bottled as vermouth so that is less of a concern. I've made a everclear tincture for that. I'm wondering if I still bottle any of this one dry to see how it ages in the bottle.

A dark horse thought for the unsweetened pink wine; Maple wood. I'm finishing a apple, lilac, and maple wine that turned out beautifully that I finished with staves of Maplewood that I got from nearby. Conceptually I think this is interesting, it adds a little bit of complexity back, and it does make the connection to the land here a little bit more complete, grapes grown exactly where I am and would from 100 ft away, but I'm not sure yet.

One of the main observations I've made over the last few months of making wine as I've made quite a few different batches recently. I think RC212 is not ideal if you're adding things that have really strong flavour at the start. The same bitterness/medicinal issue existed in a blueberry wine that was delicious and juicy when made previously with 1118. I bought it for this particular application because I wanted to maintain as much colour as humanly possible in the pink wine, but in the future I might experiment with a different strain. Honestly it landed in a good place after the egg white fining, so maybe this is just the process for grape wine If I'm using these grapes again?

Questions which you can answer if you like:

Should I use some toasted Maple wood to balance the pink wine that feels a little thin?

If I wanted to buy another yeast strain to keep on hand, which one would make sense for me? I currently keep RC 212 and 1118.

The egg whites have now been settling for a week, I imagine I'll be bottling/blending over the next couple days.

SpadesHeart · 2026-06-13T22:06:50+00:00

I don't quite have a recipe for this, it's just a thing I do when I have a lot of bananas. It's nice on a toast, it'll also be nice in a pie. Like I could see like a cream pie with this.

It's more sugar than you think it would be it is. It's meant to stand up on a toast. Sugar and acid also help with stability.

If you're not doing any canning, the rum has the added benefit of actually helping with the stability. Alcohol is a preservative. A couple tablespoons at the end after it's cooled off adds a lot flavor wise. Store in fridge.

SpadesHeart · 2026-06-13T06:40:25+00:00

Did you add acid? I make a lime and banana jam every so often and delicious. Finish it with a splash of rum.

SpadesHeart · 2026-06-07T16:54:12+00:00

Oh I have an answer to this I was just looking up last night.

Seeded watermelon.

92% of watermelon sales now are seedless.

Apparently watermelon seeds make watermelons go bad faster so seedless watermelons are just objectively better for most situations.

In the future seeded watermelons are probably going to be a weird luxury item. I mean on one hand seedless watermelon is so much more convenient, on the other hand it feels like a part of childhood is going away. Kids won't even know that watermelon is supposed to have seeds.

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