jamesg

When night falls, we can be sure of one fact: there are stars in the sky that could be visible. Some days, the clouds obscure them. Our sense of wonder is unsatisfied. You know there is beauty to be seen, but the complexities of the skies and weather get in the way. The clouds can bring beauty in the day. Oh how I love seeing pink clouds, their colour coming from the setting sun.

This blog post is a poll. Please respond to the poll below by sending a Webmention to the link associated with the option for which you want to vote.

Now that I know a bit about brewing speciality coffee, I am starting to see the

As I write, I am in a comfortable armchair in an Edinburgh cafe, looking out on a rainy street. It has been rainy all day. I have been writing a lot of blog posts this morning, and an idea popped in to my head that I haven't thought about in a while: I would like for there to be a cappuccino emoji.

My local coffee shop has Turkish roots. The shop serves traditional Turkish cuisine alongside coffee. On their menu, they list that they serve Turkish coffee. I've been intrigued by this offering ever since I first saw their menu but I never ordered the coffee. I always went for safer drinks, such as the flat white, which I knew I would like. I've never been one for ordering black coffee outside of my home; I can make black coffee at home.

For as long as I can remember, I have enjoyed the morning sun; waking up to see the sun beaming with light. This morning, I found myself walking in the direction of the sun as it was in the early stages after having risen past the horizon for the day. The sunlight illuminated the environment. Thank goodness I had brought my sunglasses. There is something joyful about walking early in the morning and requiring sunglasses because the sun is shining. A reminder that spring is here and summer is coming.

Before work today, I spent some time in a park, looking out onto old buildings. I sat and watched the world go by. Women and men in formal wear walked by, presumably going to work. A boy in school clothes walked past. Others were in summer clothing. People took photos of the buildings.

I read about an experiment a while ago that lets you taste coffee at different points of extraction but I have always thought this experiment was only suitable for espresso. A few weeks ago, I tried the experiment and realised it worked with regular pour-over coffee. In my latest blog post for Steampunk Coffee, I share how I conducted an experiment to taste pour-over coffee at different points of extraction.

Starting to brew speciality coffee at home can be quite intimidating. It is easy to get caught up in equipment and techniques and facts about coffee. That's why I decided to write an article for Steampunk Coffee on how you can start brewing coffee at home. I share four steps to follow if you want to start brewing coffee at home without too much fuss.

I am trying to cup twice every week and I've learned a lot about coffee tasting in the process. But why should any home brewer cup at home? This is the question I answer in detail in my latest blog post for the Steampunk blog, written from my perspective as a home brewer.

I have tried two methods of pouring: pulse and continuous. These two methods are seen as the main

When you read a coffee recipe—or hear someone talking about how they brew coffee—there are some common words that you are bound to hear at some point. But if you are a beginner, some of these terms of jargon may not be clear. That's why I decided to write a pour-over brewing glossary to help beginners to pour-over brewing learn the lingo.

I looked up at the sky, preparing to go to sleep. I enjoy looking at the sky, especially in the evening, to gaze at the sunsets, stars, the moon. Space is awe-inspiring. It was getting late. A bright glow shone through some clouds. It was the moon, obscured by the clouds but still shining.

Is it possible to fall in love with a musical instrument? Yes. As I travel, I find myself lamenting the lack of musical instruments available to play. I feel

I was reading through my social reader earlier today and saw Ruben's latest blog post on his Christmas tree. We are on the same wavelength this year, for I, too have caffeine-related tree decorations. I have Starbucks cup, a teapot, and tea caddy decorations.

Ruben Schade, a technical writer who blogs about the internet, technology, and many other topics, featured a quick post on me on his blog. In only a few hundred words, Ruben was able to summarise accurately exactly what I like to do on this blog. The first sentence in particular stood out to me, which was:

Who's that chick, [lower voice] whose that chick, and the accompanying melody, caught my attention earlier today in a cafe. I was doing some coding on my computer when I heard those lyrics in the background. The song was so enticing that I noted to myself I must write down any lyrics I can comprehend (I am often bad at hearing the words in lyrics in songs the first time I have heard them!). That's the story of why my TODO list, in addition to being interspersed with words for my Fun with Words series, contained

I am writing a blog post every day from December 1st to December 24th, 2021, about a blogger whose writing or site I follow. My aim for this series is to help you discover new blogs and to help get the word out about content creators whose blogs I appreciate. You can read more about this series in the inaugural Day 1 post.

RSVP yes to {{ page.title }}.

While sipping on a cup of black tea this quiet Sunday afternoon, I recorded the second episode of my podcast. In the episode, I discuss a game I have been working on this week to compare one's voice to Taylor Swift's voice, rambles on my dreams for the web, greetings, and tea. This episode is more technical than I thought. Next time I shall try to come prepared with more non-technical topics!

I am writing a blog post every day from December 1st to December 24th, 2021, about a blogger whose writing or site I follow. My aim for this series is to help you discover new blogs and to help get the word out about content creators whose blogs I appreciate. You can read more about this series in the inaugural Day 1 post.

(The picture above is from a previous game, not the one in which I lost that I describe in this post.)

It has been a few weeks since I last blogged. I have been busy learning, working, and travelling. Today I have a blog post to share with you, or at least I will by the time I finish hitting keys in sequence to produce this post.

The seasons are changing. I looked out the window yesterday and noticed that several of the trees I can see outside my window no longer have leaves; other trees have yellow leaves. I still have the image in my mind when all of the trees were bountiful with green leaves. It seems like just yesterday. The reality is that the leaves have been changing for a few weeks. I knew autumn was here. But, I found a moment where I contrasted how things were a few weeks ago with how they are now. The seasons are changing.

I am in the process of producing two zines. Each zine features photos centred around a particular theme. I will not spoil too much since I would like to make a full announcement after I have print copies ready to distribute. For now, all you need to know is I am working on two zines and both of them contain photos.

My first attempt at writing an analytics bash script got me excited about bash scripting. My first script displayed the total number of page views my blog receives and the total number of people who have viewed my feed. The program was limited to reading logs for the last two days.

The sun was shining. Palm trees were around; my favourite tree. My taxi arrived. I was headed for the airport.

A curious mix of topics indeed! Join me for my latest podcast episode in which I discuss, among other things, bubbles, programming languages, and use-case driven development. I also talk about Ruben's blog, a source of inspiration that encouraged me to expand the topics about which I write on my blog. In the episode, I also mention the Overnightscape Underground, to which episodes of this podcast are now syndicated. I hope you enjoy the episode!

I made an RSS feed for the OpenAI blog. You can subscribe to the feed in your feed reader using this address: