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Too Caught Up

One of the simpler images I took from my trip to Beechworth. Personally prefer pictures to be vibrant, yet simple with fewer details trying to grab one’s attention.

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Feel that my camera only makes a cameo appearance during weekends these days. My attention has been taken away by other things. Work takes up a big chunk of time, but you seem so isolated from the things that are going on around you. Maybe I want more interaction, instead of just trying to coax the computer to produce reports and answers for others. I’m losing my sense of direction again and sometimes it’s only apparent when there’s questions to be answered.

Also fiddling with my coffee machine. It’s like a professional camera, where pressing a button captures you an image, so an outcome is produced. The technical capabilities of the camera will create you a sharp image with proper dynamic range and the like, just as following the steps to dosing enough grind for a coffee will produce you a shot. It comes out decent, but lacks the excitement of something that’s done with a little more thoughtfulness.

Heh, maybe I’m rambling on a bit, but I feel stagnant often. I was browsing images on Flickr of other people, and there’s a wealth of talent out there. Sometimes I wish I could cast my nature aside, so that I can mingle with all these brilliant minds, and absorb a little of their creativity so that I too can produce imagery that I’d be proud of.

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Just too caught up in the daily grind. Maybe my mind has a more romanticised notion of what life should be. The weekend beckons. Time to set myself free and explore what’s out there.

Additions

Was at the Scienceworks Museum last Thursday night to go see the Star Wars Exhibition. You could say most adults who went there were accompanied by kids. Heh, I guess me and my friend were just big kids there. Star Wars was a phenomenon, and every character created left a lasting impression, even the ever annoying Jar Jar Binks, who jars your memory everytime you think of him (pun intended).

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My credit card bill next month is going to be painful. Spent on the coffee machine, and just purchased a new fridge yesterday, a Fisher and Paykel E402BRX. It’s double the size of what we have in the apartment now, comes in stainless steel ($100 extra compared to the white version to satisfy the vanity) and is of the bottom, top variety. This just means that the freezer is in the unconventional location at the bottom of the fridge and the regular cooling section is up top. These types of fridges cost more, but you get extra freezer space (1/3 the space instead of 1/4 of regular fridges) and physics thought you that hot air rises and cold air sinks, hence the position of the freezer at the bottom, making it more efficient to cool.

Fisher and Paykel are sort of the luxury brand for refrigerators. Vyanne and I did research prior to visiting the store. You have Westinghouse, Samsung and LG refrigerators but after the slick salesman at Harvey Norman went through the materials and manufacturing process of the fridge, I was pretty much sold on the Fisher and Paykel brand.

I have the experience of purchasing a fridge before while I was still in uni back in 2002. As a student, and not knowing if I’d stay on after I graduated, the cheapest fridge at the shop was basically what I purchased. Fast forward 7 years and the fridge is still running, but I have to either finish my milk quickly, or throw it out before the expiry date as the fridge doesn’t cool as well as it used to. So a proper fridge is within the four digit range, and not the three digits I paid for it so long ago. You have to consider the fact that you use it 24 x 7, even if you don’t look at it like say a computer screen, so why cut corners on something that is essential for everyday life? Hence the stainless steel edition of the fridge, and if it’s 7 years before I get a new fridge, I think it’s money well spent.

Did we get the best price for it? Well, not quite. Slick salesman used some interesting tactics, asking up front if we would buy the fridge if the price was right. We quoted him an online price, so managed to knock down the fridge price quite a bit. Not as cheap as the online price, but prefer to deal with a physical store and a reputable brand (not that I’ve purchased anything from Harvey Norman before). The not so cheap part was the delivery charge and the extra warranty. Somehow we got talked into paying for the added warranty. Heh, I’m a believer of the idea that if you buy something, and if it doesn’t break down within 7 days, it’s not likely to break down at all, except due to old age. Oh well, you learn.

Fridge is currently out of stock at the store but sitting in a warehouse somewhere in Australia. Hope to get it soon so I can stop worrying about my milk turning into yogurt.

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Making coffee is like researching a PhD paper. There are so many variations to making an espresso shot that it’s almost mind boggling. Different beans from different locations have different taste profiles, suitable for different methods of making coffee. Roast them between medium and dark, and you get something different. Mix the beans together into different blends, and you get the various characteristics of each bean.

It is as much science as it is art, where you can be as specific as getting the 21g of beans required to make a double shot, or just using your senses to see, hear and smell if your coffee/milk has come out properly. I have pulled shots with varying success and the more I learn about the process, the more confusing it gets. Best to keep practicing until you can get it consistent, but I don’t make nearly enough drinks to be able to pick up the subtle differences that quickly.

One of the first coffees I made when I got the machine. Looked decent, tasted decent. Now I’m having a little more trouble trying to replicate a proper drop. My tastebuds have become confused with whether the coffee is sour or bitter, although I tend to think it’s verging on sour more often than not. Keen to learn everything but sometimes the information is overwhelming. Heh, that’s when I just go to the proper cafes nearby and for $3.30, you get a very decent drop of coffee.

Progress

Behold the Diadema Perfetta, stylish stainless steel hunk of metal. Makes coffee.

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Finally plonked down cash for a coffee machine and grinder. My previous machine from eBay had gone to the repair shop and I suddenly got an itch to replace it so I got myself a Diadema Perfetta single boiler dual purpose espresso machine and a Macap M5 grinder. Put in the order on Monday and I was sort of excited all week until finally this morning I went to pick up the machine. The grinder is pretty high end, and probably one of the best home use machines which is already bordering on commercial cafe quality machinery. The espresso machine is pretty much top of the line of the single boiler machines out there. Unlike the higher end machines, I cannot make coffee and steam milk at the same time due to the temperature differences between both processes. I’m quite happy to wait a bit before steaming milk as I don’t normally prepare that many drinks.

So far I’ve made only a few coffees (will start taking photos once I produce something decent) and with just some basic knowledge and skills, the coffee still comes out pretty decent. When I can start making coffee art on the steamed milk, I’d have had plenty of time on the machine.

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It’s been a pretty productive week for me. Cleared out a backlog of work I had piled up and feel pretty good about it. Finally got my first item sold on eBay, just hoping that it arrives to the person who bought it in one piece. Now I have one less computer and while four seems excessive, they all have their reasons for being in my room as they serve different purposes.

Got my shipment of books from Amazon regarding photography. Have graduated beyond the books that teach you how to expose for a scene. These days I’m more into the thinking behind how to compose an image and I’ve picked up a few ideas here and there. I had previously purchased Joe McNally’s The Moment it Clicks and mentioned it here. This time around I bought his second book, The Hot Shoe Diaries as well as another book by photographer David duChemin, titled Within the Frame: The Journey of Photography Vision. Have only skimmed the surface of both books and would like to spend time reading them over the week.

No soccer on tonight, so I’m happy to just lay back, relax and flip through my books.