jamesg

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The Travelling Cat Chronicles Book Review | James' Coffee Blog
The Travelling Cat Chronicles Book Review | James' Coffee Blog
Maybe I have been underestimating cats all along. I have a feeling that cats can communicate with each other; the two cats in my house can share their thoughts and feelings. I am unsure how, but I wish it were true. Cats feel more perceptive, like they understand more about the human world than we give them credit for. These thoughts have been swaying around in my mind as I have been reading—and now that I have finished—The Travelling Cat Chronicles.
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The Travelling Cat Chronicles Book Review | James' Coffee Blog
When the moment strikes | James' Coffee Blog
When the moment strikes | James' Coffee Blog
Do you ever get the feeling that where you are right now is just where you are meant to be, even if your plans for the day have been derailed? A feeling of contentment, made all the more blissful by the recognition that what you are doing now wouldn’t have been possible if the day had gone the way you had planned.
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When the moment strikes | James' Coffee Blog
Writing moods | James' Coffee Blog
Writing moods | James' Coffee Blog
At last night's Homebrew Website Club meetup, I noted that I struggled to find the utility of a digital gardens for myself. Ender ^1 said that digital gardens are a different
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Writing moods | James' Coffee Blog
Espresso journaling | James' Coffee Blog
Espresso journaling | James' Coffee Blog
For the last few days, I have been keeping a journal of my espresso brews. Here is a journal entry from earlier today:
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Espresso journaling | James' Coffee Blog
The Bicyclist | James' Coffee Blog
The Bicyclist | James' Coffee Blog
I gazed up at the Empire State Building from a few blocks away. The building was illuminated with red, white, and blue, in celebration of Veterans Day. Tall buildings fill me with wonder, and this one arguably more so than others. The Empire State Building was constructed in approximately 400 days; wonderful, in the traditional sense of the word.
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The Bicyclist | James' Coffee Blog
Pavement games | James' Coffee Blog
Pavement games | James' Coffee Blog
As I walked along the Embarcadero in San Francisco a few months ago, enjoying the morning light, I saw an incline on the pavement (or, to use lingo appropriate for the region, the sidewalk); an edge on which I felt tempted to walk. I was reminded of childhood: the impulse to walk on the edge of a pavement, placing foot after foot, trying to balance.
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Pavement games | James' Coffee Blog
Technical Estimations | James' Coffee Blog
Technical Estimations | James' Coffee Blog
Earlier today, I moved all of the bookmarks, likes, and replies from my website to my bookmarks website that uses the Known platform^1. I am thinking about re-building my blog with Eleventy (11ty), a popular JavaScript static site generator, too. I made a comment in the IndieWeb chat about my experience after encountering a few challenges (read: learning!), to which a few people responded. I am far into the the project, but I realised I don't have the mental headspace to take on the full migration right now.
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Technical Estimations | James' Coffee Blog
My growing mug collection | James' Coffee Blog
My growing mug collection | James' Coffee Blog
As a child, there were always a lot of mugs in the house. My dad collected them and would seldom part with a mug. For years, I did not understand why: (i) we had so many mugs; (ii) mugs were so highly valued. Over the last few weeks, I have realised that collecting mugs is not unusual, especially for coffee enthusiasts. If anything, it's hard to avoid picking up at least a few mugs that you absolutely do not need but will still find joy in having at home.
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My growing mug collection | James' Coffee Blog
Edinburgh New College (Photo) | James' Coffee Blog
Edinburgh New College (Photo) | James' Coffee Blog
A few weeks ago, I saw the gates to the University of Edinburgh New College were open. This has, in my experience, been rare, as every time I walk by the gates have been closed. When I saw the gates open, I took the opportunity and went in to take a few pictures of the courtyard. The view was beautiful. Visible behind the college building was a church on the Royal Mile, standing high. I took a few photos but the one above was my favourite.M
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Edinburgh New College (Photo) | James' Coffee Blog
Coffee Chat with SOLO Coffee | James' Coffee Blog
Coffee Chat with SOLO Coffee | James' Coffee Blog
I love reading cafe reviews. A few weeks ago, I came across SOLO Coffee, a blog written by Eline Ferket, that features detailed reviews of cafes around the world. I started reading her reviews on Scottish cafes, given I live in Scotland, and I grew more intrigued with her writing style. I had the pleasure of talking with Eline over email to chat about her blog. The interview is below, edited lightly for clarity.
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Coffee Chat with SOLO Coffee | James' Coffee Blog
Ordering espresso at cafes | James' Coffee Blog
Ordering espresso at cafes | James' Coffee Blog
I was recently chatting with a friend about ordering espresso in cafes. I said that I used to never order espresso from cafes. Even as I learned about speciality coffee, I preferred to order milky drinks when I was out. I reasoned that if I was in a cafe I would prefer to have a drink that I could sip on. Also, I love milky coffee drinks so I would seize the opportunity to order one. Now, however, I am ordering more espresso at cafes.
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Ordering espresso at cafes | James' Coffee Blog
The (not so awkward?) shuffle | James' Coffee Blog
The (not so awkward?) shuffle | James' Coffee Blog
I was walking around Edinburgh today. On my way down a street with a narrow pavement, I was in a position where it was unclear to me in what direction I should walk. The person in front of me shuffled one way and I did, too.
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The (not so awkward?) shuffle | James' Coffee Blog
I wrote an article for Sprudge | James' Coffee Blog
I wrote an article for Sprudge | James' Coffee Blog
A few months ago, I reached out to Sprudge to see if they would be interested in an article on Edinburgh's coffee roasting scene. There are a plethora of high-quality roasters in the city and I wanted to spread the word about the great work they do. My article was published in Sprudge last week. In my piece, I talk about six coffee roasters located throughout the city and their place in the Edinburgh coffee scene.
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I wrote an article for Sprudge | James' Coffee Blog
Deep in Thought | James' Coffee Blog
Deep in Thought | James' Coffee Blog
This post was written on Saturday, April 15th, prior to Loneliness and published today, April 17th.
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Deep in Thought | James' Coffee Blog
Bombe, Ethiopia Obadiah Coffee Review | James' Coffee Blog
Bombe, Ethiopia Obadiah Coffee Review | James' Coffee Blog
Based in Edinburgh, Obadiah Coffee has been on my mental list of roasters to try for a while. Their packaging is minimal, using simple pale colour palettes, and the company recently announced a rum aged coffee which caught my attention. I recently opted to purchase their Bombe, Ethiopia coffee. The tasting notes featured blueberry and caramel, two flavours I thought I'd enjoy.
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Bombe, Ethiopia Obadiah Coffee Review | James' Coffee Blog
The Rain | James' Coffee Blog
The Rain | James' Coffee Blog
One morning, I was making my way to a Starbucks in Edinburgh. It was early in the morning. I was looking forward to enjoying a coffee in peace before bustle enveloped the city. I headed to the Quartermile, where there is a Starbucks (and also a speciality coffee shop from which I have had a great cup of tea in the past). As I was walking, it started to rain. Heavier and heavier. As I got close to the Starbucks, water was starting to soak through my trainers. My trousers were drenched. I stopped in the rain.
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The Rain | James' Coffee Blog
Brainstorming a coffee label reader application | James' Coffee Blog
Brainstorming a coffee label reader application | James' Coffee Blog
When I consumed more speciality coffee, I had an idea for an application that would let you take a photo (or photos) of a label on a bag of coffee and create a personal library of coffees you had consumed. The only input would be a photo, providing a relatively low friction method through which one could catalog the coffees they had consumed. Back when I first had this idea, I was limited by my knowledge of high-quality open source OCR models out there.
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Brainstorming a coffee label reader application | James' Coffee Blog
Coffee Chat with The Drip in Edinburgh | James' Coffee Blog
Coffee Chat with The Drip in Edinburgh | James' Coffee Blog
The Drip is one of a few police box cafes in Edinburgh, an idea which has intrigued me since I first found out about police box cafes. The Drip has locations in Morningside and Tollcross and serves espresso-based drinks to-go. I wanted to learn a bit more about the business so I reached out to The Drip on Instagram, who kindly responded to a few of my questions. Our chat is below. I hope you enjoy!
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Coffee Chat with The Drip in Edinburgh | James' Coffee Blog
Sweet Bean Paste Book Review | James' Coffee Blog
Sweet Bean Paste Book Review | James' Coffee Blog
Written by Durian Sukegawa, Sweet Bean Paste is a book I struggled to put down, filled with twists and moments that made me ponder isolation, being a member of society, and pursuing an interest despite the challenges ahead. The book starts by setting the scene, where Sentaro, a man who makes dorayaki, a sweet pancake made with sweet bean paste, sees an old woman staring at the shop where he works, Doraharu. Over time, Sentaro engages with this woman, finding out that she was a confectioner capable of making sweet bean paste.
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Sweet Bean Paste Book Review | James' Coffee Blog
TIL: Don't actually display the man pages | James' Coffee Blog
TIL: Don't actually display the man pages | James' Coffee Blog
I have installed Plan 9 on my Raspberry Pi. I am excited to start using it. I can't use Plan 9 yet because I need a new keyboard and mouse to use with my Pi. So, this evening I decided to peruse the online Plan 9 manual pages. I am excited and have been eagerly trying a few commands on my Mac to see what commands are also on my Mac.
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TIL: Don't actually display the man pages | James' Coffee Blog
Trees | James' Coffee Blog
Trees | James' Coffee Blog
I sometimes get an impulse to jump and see if I can reach a branch high up on a tree. I start lower down, then set myself a goal I could never achieve, then turn back to a lower branch. Yesterday, on a walk, I saw a branch I wanted to touch and jumped as high as I could to reach the leaves. The purpose? To fulfill the sense of excitement I had at the prospect of touching the leaves. I touched it, then failed to reach the next one. There is something joyful about trying to touch branches, paricularly when one's ability to estimate height is poor: you never know what is just high enough up that you cannot touch. At least, until you try!
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Trees | James' Coffee Blog
How is my website hosted? | James' Coffee Blog
How is my website hosted? | James' Coffee Blog
My website has been hosted on many platforms in the past, from Vercel, back when I had a website running Next.js, to DigitalOcean and Netlify. I stuck with DigitalOcean for a long while back when I decided that I wanted to have a static website. While DigitalOcean did cost money to use, I needed a server for some of the experiments I was running. Back when I got started with the IndieWeb, there were some Python scripts I wanted to run that required a server.
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How is my website hosted? | James' Coffee Blog
Advent of Bloggers 2021: Day 23 | James' Coffee Blog
Advent of Bloggers 2021: Day 23 | James' Coffee Blog
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.
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Advent of Bloggers 2021: Day 23 | James' Coffee Blog
Advent of Bloggers 2021: The Final Edition | James' Coffee Blog
Advent of Bloggers 2021: The Final Edition | James' Coffee Blog
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.
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Advent of Bloggers 2021: The Final Edition | James' Coffee Blog
Cash as a payment option | James' Coffee Blog
Cash as a payment option | James' Coffee Blog
I rode a cable car on my trip to San Francisco earlier this year. The cable car may be the closest I have been to a rollercoaster in terms of the uneasiness of the journey. We went up a big hill, then went down. I rode the full cable car on the Powell / Hyde journey. One experience from the journey that I recall vividly, aside from the beautiful views and excitement I felt on the journey, is one passenger trying to figure out how to buy a digital ticket on the cable car journey.
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Cash as a payment option | James' Coffee Blog
Fun with Words | James' Coffee Blog
Fun with Words | James' Coffee Blog
While reading the newspaper on Sunday, I found myself stopping to take note of numerous words. On the one hand, I finished my reading with a plethora of new words to feature on this series; on the other, I kept taking my phone out so I could note down the words for later reference. I should perhaps start carrying a pen and paper so I can note interesting words I encounter.
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Fun with Words | James' Coffee Blog